


when you need somebody

by localspacelesbian



Category: Andi Mack (TV), Diary of a Future President (TV), High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Anxiety, Dead Father - Freeform, Gen, I'll add more tags as I update, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Mentions of canon character death, Mild Language, but like romance is definitely not the focus of this story, i'm not going for realism here, i'm tagging all the ships that happen, just a little bit. they're all in high school, superhero au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 27,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24461686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacelesbian/pseuds/localspacelesbian
Summary: With Nini away at college, Andi struggles to navigate her newfound position as leader of a team of superheroes amidst meeting a new hero, a new villain, and all the normal stresses of high school.
Relationships: Andi Mack & Ashlyn Caswell, Andi Mack & Elena Cañero-Reed, Ashlyn Caswell/Nini Salazar-Roberts, Buffy Driscoll & Cyrus Goodman & Andi Mack, Buffy Driscoll/Marty & Jonah Beck, Elena Cañero-Reed/Belinda (Diary of a Future President), Libby/Andi Mack
Comments: 92
Kudos: 26





	1. Something New

**Author's Note:**

> i made a [playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RNhkhPrQB80inA7F3PM08?si=B8TKx47sTuy6dAzuDG7h1w) to go with this fic  
> also, my friend astrid helped me a lot with the worldbuilding for this fic, so yall should go check out her writing [here](https://www.wattpad.com/user/AstridArtemis49) because she's amazing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (fic title from side by side by sofia wylie. chapter title from start of something new from hsm)

Not much had happened in the hours that Andi had been out on patrol that evening, and she was considering going home early. She rested her cheek on her fist with her elbow leaning against the handlebar of her motorcycle as she daydreamed about the pasta her dad had made for supper that night and wondered if there was any left. She was startled out of her thoughts by a nearby scream. Nearly falling off her bike, she ran out of the alley she was in and turned in the direction of the noise. After about a block, she saw someone running around the corner across the street carrying a purse that was probably not theirs. Why did criminals have to be so cliche? Just as she started running toward him, the purse disappeared from the thief’s hands, and she stopped in surprise. He didn’t notice right away, but when he did, he stopped too. As he was looking around to try and figure out where it went, he was suddenly knocked to the ground. Not only did Andi not see what hit him, she didn’t even see him fall. He was just suddenly lying on the ground.

She jogged over to him and knelt down to see that he was unconscious. She looked around and saw a woman sitting on the ground looking terrified. The purse was sitting right next to her. Andi helped her up and made sure she was ok but couldn’t get a word in as the woman started thanking her, assuming it had somehow been Andi who had stopped the man. Which was a fair assumption, given that she was, you know, a superhero, and there didn’t seem to be anyone else around. But still, those were definitely  _ not _ her powers. Regardless, Andi decided not to correct her. At least not until she figured out who  _ had _ done it.

Once the woman had calmed down and was on the phone with the police, Andi walked back over to the man on the ground to make sure he was ok but didn’t get away before the cops showed up.

“He’s going to be ok, right?” Andi was startled at the voice, looking over her shoulder to see a girl standing there. She was a little shorter than Andi, and even though she couldn’t be more than two years younger than her, Andi couldn’t help but see a scared child behind the cheap mask and makeshift costume. “I didn’t mean to knock him out.”

“You did this?” Andi asked, pointing down at the man. She nodded quickly. “You have powers?” She nodded again, and Andi looked at her curiously. “What is it? Invisibility? Teleportation?” Neither of those seemed right, but Andi couldn’t think of anything else.

“Not quite.”

Before Andi could ask what that meant, she heard the sound of police sirens approaching. She looked up instinctively at the noise, and when she looked back, the girl was gone.

Once the police got there, Andi faded into the background to let them handle things, staying just close enough that she could keep an eye on things. She stuck around longer than she normally would after they were gone, hoping that the mysterious girl had as well. Fortunately, she was right. As soon as the cops were gone, she was once again startled by someone appearing at her side.

“Sorry.” Andi looked at her and noticed that she looked nervous. “I’m not exactly a huge fan of cops.”

Andi nodded and tried to give her a comforting smile. “It’s fine. I get it.” She had had many encounters with police over the years, in both her regular and superhero lives. Some of them were positive. Most of them were not. “Unfortunately, it comes with the job.” The girl nodded. “So… you were telling me about your powers?” She nodded again. Andi looked around. “But maybe we should go somewhere more private to talk about that.” She started walking, trusting the girl to follow her. She led her down the street to where she’d parked her motorcycle. She opened up the saddle bag and pulled out two helmets, handing one over.

“Wait. Are you expecting me to get on that?”

Andi shrugged. “Yeah. It’s perfectly safe. Trust me. I have a license.”

“Can I see it?”

Andi raised an eyebrow. “Are you gonna tell me  _ your _ name?”

She hesitated just a second before taking the helmet and putting it on. Andi helped her adjust the strap before putting on her own and getting on the bike. And if she hugged Andi a bit too tightly as they drove, Andi chose not to say anything. After all, she remembered being scared the first time she’d ridden on her mom’s motorcycle. And she remembered being terrified when she’d first started out trying to be a superhero. God, she didn’t know what she’d have done if not for Nini and Ashlyn. Sure, Buffy and Cyrus were great ‘guys in the chair,’ but they didn’t have powers. They didn’t  _ get _ it. And she didn’t know if this girl even had that. Andi wasn’t sure why she trusted someone she’d just met, but a voice in her head (that sounded oddly like Cyrus) assured her she could, and Andi wasn’t about to let her go through this alone.

She took her the long way, into the tunnel that led to the secret entrance to her ‘lair,’ as Cyrus called it. She preferred to think of it as ‘Andi Shack 2.0,’ but she couldn’t exactly call it that to people who didn’t know her secret identity. Andi felt the arms around her waist squeeze tighter and a face press against her back as they approached the entrance, and Andi slowed down, but not enough that she could realistically stop before hitting what appeared to be a wall. The door opened up just before they got to it and closed behind them immediately. Andi stopped the motorcycle, but the girl didn’t let go of her. Or move at all. Andi took off her helmet and did her best to turn and face her.

“We’re here. We stopped.”

She nodded, but it looked weird. Like she was… well, Andi could only describe it as glitching. Suddenly, she was standing next to the motorcycle. Before Andi could even process that, her helmet was off and laying on the ground next to her, and she looked kind of sick. By the time Andi got off the motorcycle and set her own helmet down, she looked more excited than scared; she was even smiling.

She suddenly started talking very quickly. “That was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. Even scarier than eating alligator meat. Or waxing my mustache.” She looked away for a second and shuddered and then turned back to Andi, her smile back. “But it was also really fun and exhilarating. Although a little warning before almost crashing us into a wall would’ve been nice.”

“Sorry, I guess I’m just used to it. But I did tell you we’d be safe, didn’t I?” She nodded. “Are you ok? You were sort of, I don’t know, glitching?”

She looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Like you were over here and then suddenly you were over there.”

“Oh. I didn’t even notice. Sorry, I’m still getting used to my powers. Sometimes I just freeze and unfreeze time without realizing it.”

“Freezing time. That’s what your power is?”

She nodded. “Yep.”

“That’s so cool.”

“Yeah. It’d be cooler if I could control it better though.”

“Hey, you did pretty good tonight with stopping that guy.”

She smiled at Andi. “Thanks. I can’t believe a real superhero just said that to me!” She looked around, as though just realizing where they were. “Oh my goddess, are we in your secret lair? Am I in a real superhero secret lair right now? This is the coolest thing to ever happen to me!”

Andi smiled at her enthusiasm and nodded. “Yep.” She took a couple of steps forward, causing the rest of the motion sensor lights to turn on, and held out her arms. “Welcome to the Greenhouse.”

Cyrus had come up with that name, and as cheesy as it was, she kind of loved it. The whole place was covered in plants: vines and flowers covered the walls and ceiling, the ground was dirt and moss, and the artificial lights were almost as good as real sunlight (unfortunately, pretty much everyone had agreed that windows in a secret lair were a bad idea). And everything that could be made of plants was. Because when she’d gotten her powers she couldn’t help but go all out with the whole plant theme. There was a wooden table close to the far wall, currently covered in papers, fabric, and her sewing machine, and next to it was a dress form with a mostly-finished witch costume on it because sometimes her regular life bled into her superhero life, and she had a show to costume. On the other side of the table sat a computer, currently turned off. The chairs around it, the couch against the wall, and the hammock chair hanging from the ceiling next to it all sat empty. Things had been fairly quiet recently, as if Nini had taken all the criminals and supervillains with her when she’d moved across the country to her fancy acting school, so Andi hadn’t bothered to call for backup when she went out that night.

She walked over and sat on the couch as she watched her new friend take everything in around her, smiling wider than Andi had thought was humanly possible. 

Eventually, she came over and sat next to Andi, still looking excited. “Ok, this is seriously the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks.” She smiled. “So… your powers?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I can freeze time. I think that’s it. It’s all still kind of new.”

“How new?”

“Like a week?”

Andi raised her eyebrows. That was pretty recent to already be out there trying to fight crime. “How did it happen?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just woke up one day, and suddenly I could freeze time. I’m still trying to figure out what happened.”

“And in the meantime, you decided to fight crime?”

She shrugged again. “‘With great power comes great responsibility,’ you know? What else was I supposed to do?”

Andi nodded. She couldn’t exactly fault her for that when she’d done basically the same thing. “Does anyone else know?”

She shook her head. “I was going to tell my mom because normally I tell her everything, but then when I decided I wanted to be a superhero, I thought that might not be a good idea because secret identities, you know. Also, she’d probably try to stop me.” Andi nodded again. She hadn’t told her parents either. (She was pretty sure they knew by now anyway, but neither of them had said anything. She couldn’t imagine how Cece would react though.) “And I was going to tell my best friend, but I just don’t know how.” She looked down.

“So you’re just gonna do this whole superhero thing alone?” She couldn’t imagine going this without her best friends.

“Pretty much, yeah. I mean somebody’s gotta do it.” She shrugged one shoulder.

Andi raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I don’t know if you noticed, but that somebody’s kind of me.”

“I couldn’t help but notice that you seem to be down a woman.”

Andi looked down. She’d been wondering how long it would take the public would catch on to Nini’s absence. “So what? You thought you could replace her or something?”

She shook her head. “Of course not. I just figured, there’s room in this town for more than one superhero, right?” She looked nervous. “You aren’t going to try to stop me, are you?”

Andi sighed and shook her head. “No, I’m not.” She remembered when Nini had tried to stop her. It hadn’t gone well. “But I’m not going to let you do this alone. And I’m definitely not going to let you go out dressed like that.”

She looked down at her outfit. She was wearing a dark blue hoodie, a red mask, and black leggings. Not too bad for an ametuer, but it would do nothing to protect her in a fight. And her hair was only going to get in the way if she didn’t put it up or cut it off (and people never seemed to go for the latter suggestion). And the sparkly pink shoes were a bad idea for so many reasons. “What am I supposed to wear?”

“I’ll make you something.”

“Really?”

“Of course.” As she thought about it, she already had a million ideas and a billion questions, but she didn’t want to overwhelm the poor girl, so she decided not to bring them up just yet. “You just have to promise you won’t try to go out and fight crime by yourself again until I’m done.”

She nodded. “Got it. No superheroing without a super suit.”

“So… do you have a superhero name yet?”

She shook her head. “I’m still working on that.”

“You should probably get on that before someone else comes up with one for you.” The media was somehow always really bad at coming up with superhero names. Not that Andi had experience with that of course.

“Right. Got any ideas?”

She bit her lip, thinking. “How about… Captain Freeze? Cause, you know, you freeze time?” Ok, maybe Andi had no room to talk. To be fair, just because Andi was creative in some (ok, many) aspects, didn’t mean that one of them was coming up with superhero names.

“That sounds more like I have ice powers.”

Andi shrugged. “Confusing people can be fun.”

‘Captain Freeze’ snorted.

“Ok, so maybe not that. But I’m sure you’ll think of something. You have time.”

She nodded and then yawned. “Speaking of, that time is it? I should probably get home before my mom starts to worry.”

Andi checked her phone. It  _ was _ getting kind of late. “Come on, I’ll drive you.” She got up. “Where do you want me to drop you off?”


	2. A Distress Signal

Andi, as per usual, made it to school about halfway through the morning announcements, a fact about which her teacher had long since given up saying anything. As she sat down next to Buffy, she heard the voice over the loudspeaker announce what was for lunch and was relieved that for once she didn’t miss that part at least. Not that she was particularly excited for the school’s meatloaf. But it was nice to know. But then she realized the voice sounded oddly familiar. She leaned over to Buffy. “Hey, do you know who does the morning announcements?”

Buffy shrugged. “Some freshman I think. Why?”

“Just wondering.” She sat back in her seat.  _ Huh _ .

She spent most of her classes that day sketching costume design ideas and most of her time between classes looking at the other students, trying to figure out if one of them was her new friend. She didn’t have any luck, but she wasn’t too worried about it. It just validated her theory that she was an underclassman since the different grades didn’t exactly intermingle much.

At rehearsal that afternoon, she and Libby sat in the dressing room together, as they so often did to avoid the chaos of the cast. Libby was repainting Gina’s slipper that Miss Jenn had said wasn’t ‘pure as gold enough,’ and Andi was sitting on the counter sketching.

Libby tapped Andi’s knee to get her attention. ‘What’s that?’ she signed, pointing at the sketchbook.

Andi turned it around to show her.

Libby tilted her head to the side. ‘New costume?’

‘Not for me. Long story.’

Libby nodded.

Andi’s phone went off. Andi looked over at where it was sitting on the counter next to her. It was a distress signal. From Buffy.  _ Shit _ . She and Libby looked at each other with wide eyes before she leapt into action. Heart racing, Andi changed as fast as she could and ran to the gym.

As soon as she opened the doors, she winced as her head felt like it was going to split open, but she managed to push through. She looked around the gym and couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing. At first, it looked like a normal basketball practice. The girls were running around, talking, laughing, shooting hoops. But something felt off. Andi couldn’t explain it. The lights were too bright. The sounds of the basketballs hitting the ground and the shoes squeaking on the court were too loud. And there was a faint ringing sound in Andi’s ears that just wouldn’t go away. Then, through the chaos, Andi saw there was one girl in the middle of the court, not playing with the others. Kira. She was just standing there  _ staring _ at Andi.

Suddenly, the girls were all laying on the ground, and the room was filled with a dark red light. Andi’s stomach filled with dread as she looked around at the girls and the ringing in her ears got louder. She started walking toward Kira. She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew Kira was somehow at the center of it.

As she started walking, the girls disappeared and the room went dark and cold. All that was left was Kira. And an inescapable feeling of sadness and despair and overwhelming _ loneliness _ .

She continued on, and after a second, the rest of the team reappeared, still on the ground, but now conscious. Most of them were holding their hands over their ears and looked like they were in pain. Including Kira.

The room seemed to flicker between the four different images as Andi continued walking toward her, and she tried to focus on the last one as it had somehow felt the most real. The walk to the middle of the gym felt longer than it should as she forced herself to focus on Kira and to not look for Buffy among the crowd, knowing that seeing her friend in pain would kill her.

Eventually, she made it. Andi never thought she’d ever feel bad for Kira of all people, but she looked so scared and hurt it made Andi’s heart ache. She didn’t think it would be a good idea to touch her, so she just knelt in front of her, doing her best to ignore the pounding in her head and the flashing sights and sounds around her. She tried to remember everything Cyrus had told her about helping Jonah through his panic attacks, hoping the same principle applied here, even though she still had no idea what was going on.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ashlyn enter the room, and god, she hoped that was real because she didn’t know if she could do this alone.

“Kira, can you hear me?” No response. “Kira, I’m here to help you. You’re going to be ok. I’m right here. Just breathe.” The world around them started to get just slightly duller and quieter. Andi kept talking, saying whatever she could think of that sounded calming. God, this was really more Cyrus’s area of expertise. Not that she would ever wish this experience on him.

Ashlyn appeared right next to her. She gave her a small smile and held her hand before turning to Kira. The crystal on her necklace started to glow a faint blue, and Andi felt immediately calmer. 

After a few seconds, Kira slowly lowered her hands, her breathing steadied, and everything around them started to calm down a bit more until it finally stabilized and the illusions faded away. She opened her eyes and looked confused when she saw them. “What just happened?”

“I was kind of hoping you’d be able to tell me that,” Andi answered.

Kira’s eyes widened as she realized who she was. “You’re-” Andi nodded. Kira looked around the room. “What?”

The rest of the team was sitting up now and looking at them, most of them worried and confused but otherwise mostly fine. At least physically as far as Andi could tell.

Kira stood up, and Andi stood up as well, holding out an arm to steady her. “Woah, be careful. I don’t know what just happened, but you should probably take it easy.”

“I’m fine,” Kira snapped. She looked around the room. “I should go.” She pushed passed Andi and left the gym.

Andi saw Ashlyn follow her and stayed behind to check on everyone else. “Is everyone here ok?”

Buffy stood up and walked over to her, nearly collapsing on her into a hug. Andi returned the hug, needing it almost as badly as Buffy probably did. After a few seconds, she realized how weird this probably looked to the others and forced herself to pull away. Buffy took a step back, giving her a small smile.

Andi looked between all the girls. “Does anyone know what happened?”

They all looked to their captain, and Buffy answered, looking down at her hands as she fidgeted with them. “Kira and I got in a fight. We kind of fight a lot. But this time felt different. I don’t know.” She looked up. “She got really mad. Like more than usual. And then she started freaking out, like I thought she was starting to have a panic attack or something? And I went to try to help her, but then there was this screaming? And I don’t know if it was coming from her or not, but it was awful. And then I saw-” She took a shaky breath and glanced around the room. “Well, I don’t know if everyone saw the same thing or not, but it was… a lot.” The other girls nodded in agreement.

Andi nodded. “Ok. I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, it might be better if we don’t tell anyone about this. We don’t know if it was Kira or something else that caused this, and I don’t want people to start panicking or blaming her or anything, ok?” The girls all nodded. Andi looked at Buffy, who gave her a small nod, letting her know that she could take things from here. “Ok. I guess should get going then. Places to go, people to save, you know.”


	3. So What Now?

When Andi and Buffy stepped out of the elevator that connected Andi Shack to the Greenhouse, they saw Cyrus spinning in the hammock chair and Ashlyn sitting at the table, nervously tapping her fingers as though playing a piano that wasn’t there. They both dropped their bags on the ground next to the couch before sitting on it together, Buffy immediately lying down with her head in Andi’s lap. Andi absentmindedly started playing with Buffy’s hair as they talked. Buffy told the story again, this time adding that when she and Kira had fought, Kira had made a comment about TJ and Cyrus, and Buffy had threatened to kick her off the team. She also described what she saw, and Andi and Ashlyn confirmed that they’d seen the same thing: the room flickering between those same disturbing scenes.

“I just can’t stop thinking about how lonely it felt,” Buffy said, and Andi knew exactly what she was meant because she’d felt it too. “It was like I wasn’t just alone in the gym. I was alone in the world. Like there wasn’t a single person there for me. I’ve never felt like that before. Not even when I was in Phoenix. Do you think that’s how Kira feels? Like all the time?”

Her question was met with silence. No one knew what to say. No one wanted to admit that it might be true. Because there’s no way, right? No one could feel like that  _ all _ the time. Right?

“Do we even know for sure that it was her doing that?” Andi asked. Maybe she’d been just as much a victim as everyone else, being controlled by some external force they couldn’t see.

Ashlyn nodded. “It was definitely coming from her. Nothing was like controlling her or possessing her or something. If anything, it felt like someone losing control of their powers.”

“You think Kira has powers?” Buffy asked.

Ashlyn shrugged. “What other explanation is there? But whatever they are, it’s nothing we’ve ever seen before, and I don’t think she’s even fully aware of it yet. She seemed just as surprised as anyone else.”

“What happened when she left?” Andi asked.

“She just went home. I didn’t really stick around long after that.”

“Should we try to talk to her?” Cyrus asked.

Andi bit her lip as she thought. “Would she listen to any of us? I mean she kind of hates us.”

“Who could really hold onto a middle school grudge this long?” Cyrus asked.

“Well, things got a little better last year,” Buffy said. “But then I was made captain. And I guess that was just too much for her. And of course she’s still salty that TJ chose you over her,” she added to Cyrus who winced. “Sorry.”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. I just can’t believe she’s still not over that. That was  _ eighth grade _ .”

Buffy shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know what goes on in her head.”

“Well, I think we kind of have an idea now,” Ashlyn pointed out.

They all got quiet again at that reminder.

“So what do we do?” Cyrus asked.

All of them looked to Andi. Their leader. A fact she was still getting used to. Sure, she’d kind of been the ‘leader’ of the Good Hair Crew since they were kids, but with the superhero stuff, Nini had always taken the lead. Until she left. Andi took a deep breath. “I think for now we should try to figure out what we’re dealing with, keep an eye on her but not engage yet, see what happens. And then if anyone does talk to her, I think it should be Ashlyn.”

“Me?” Ashlyn seemed surprised.

Andi nodded. “Yeah, you’re the only one here she doesn’t have a grudge against. And you’re good at talking to people. Plus, you’re the only other person we know with psychic powers.”

Ashlyn nodded. “I mean, completely different psychic powers, but I’ll see what I can do.”

Andi smiled at her.

“So what am I supposed to do at basketball practice?” Buffy asked. “What if the other girls don’t feel comfortable around her anymore?”

“I think that’s your call to make as the captain. Just, try not to do anything that could set her off again.”

“Right… That should be easy…”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’ll play nice as long as she does.”

Andi didn’t bother to respond to that, choosing instead to change the subject as she remembered what had happened the night before, which felt like much longer ago after all the chaos of today. “So… I don’t know if this is the best time to mention this, but Kira’s not the only new super in town.”

“What do you mean?” Ashlyn asked as all three of them looked worried.

“It’s not bad, I promise. I kind of made a new friend last night?”

Buffy sat up quickly and turned to look at her. “I’m sorry what?”

So Andi told them the story, and when she was done, they all stared at her in shock.

“And you don’t know who she is?” Buffy asked.

Andi shook her head. “I didn’t want to push her, you know. And she doesn’t know who I am, so it didn’t seem fair.”

“Ok, but how are you supposed to find her again?” Ashlyn pointed out.

Andi looked down.  _ Right _ . She hadn’t thought of that at the time. “I’m sure I can find her again. It’s not like she’s gonna be trying to hide from me.” The others didn't seem so sure. She looked back up and waved her hand. “I’ll figure something out. For now though, we should focus on whatever’s going on with Kira.” They all nodded.

Then, Buffy pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at it. “Shit,” she swore as she stood up. She looked at the other three and answered their questioning looks. “I was supposed to hang out with Marty and Jonah after practice today, and I completely forgot.”

Andi reached out and held her hand. “I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Yeah, but I can’t exactly tell them what happened.”

Andi dropped her hand and looked down again. She felt bad for asking Buffy and Cyrus to keep all this superhero stuff from Marty, Jonah, and TJ, especially since she’d told Libby, but there were already too many people who knew, and she couldn’t risk it.

Cyrus hopped out of the hammock chair and came over to the two of them, giving them a small smile. “Hey, it’ll be fine. Even if they don’t know everything, they get it.”

Buffy nodded. “I know. It just kinda sucks sometimes.”

Andi nodded and stood up. “I’m sorry. And, you know, you can tell them some of the stuff about Kira, just not, you know…”

Buffy nodded again. “Yeah, I’ll think of something. But I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I should probably get home, too,” Cyrus said. “Can I have a ride?” Buffy nodded at him before turning to give Andi a hug goodbye. Cyrus hugged her too, and then the two of them grabbed their bags and walked over to the elevator, Buffy’s arm over Cyrus’s shoulder.

Once they disappeared, Andi lay down on the ground and sighed. Ashlyn spun around in her chair to poke Andi with her foot. “You know they aren’t actually mad at you for making them keep this all a secret, right?”

“That’s almost worse.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could deal with them being mad at me. But they’re so  _ understanding _ . It almost makes it worse that I’m asking them to lie.”

Ashlyn gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry.”

Andi sighed. “It’s fine.”

After a short pause, Ashlyn said, “Hey, speaking of significant others, do you mind if I call Nini?”

“Go for it. I was thinking of facetiming Libby anyway.”

“Ok. tell her I say hi.” Ashlyn pushed her chair away and grabbed her phone off the table.

Andi nodded and pulled her own phone out of her pocket.


	4. Permafrost

Andi walked toward the detention room. Not for the first time, she had fallen asleep in class after being up far too late doing research the night before. She still wasn’t sure whether or not giving Kira space was a good idea, but she knew that when they did confront her, they needed to be as informed as possible. Unfortunately, psychic powers weren’t exactly the most common, so there wasn’t a ton of information available about them. But there was nothing she could do about that right now.

She opened the door and looked around before sitting at her usual table in the back of the room. Mr. Harris, the history teacher who’d gotten roped into detention duty that day, barely even acknowledged her. There weren’t a lot of people today, just a few freshman in front of her she’d seen in here before and another student she only vaguely recognized in the other back corner, not even bothering to pretend like they weren’t sleeping, which she honestly had to respect. She didn’t pay the other students much attention as she pulled out her sketchbook and continued working on the costume designs she’d started the other day.

After a few minutes, the door behind Andi opened. She didn’t look up until she heard Mr. Harris say, “What do you want, Ms. Canero-Reed? You don’t have detention today.”

“It’s Cañero-Reed,” the girl corrected as she walked in. There was something about her that seemed familiar, especially the voice. “And I’m here to get a book Belinda borrowed from me. I need it for my homework.”

“Get on with it then,” Harris said, waving his hand dismissively and going back to his computer. She walked passed Andi up to the group of freshman and talked to them for a few minutes, clearly not just about whatever book she was supposed to be getting. Andi noticed her twirling her hair as she talked to the girl who handed her the book. It was adorably awkward. She bumped into the desk behind her when she turned to walk away.

As she passed Andi’s desk, she said, “That looks really cool.”

It took Andi a second to realize she was talking about her drawing. “Oh. Um… Thanks.” Realizing it probably wasn’t smart to let someone see her drawing a superhero costume, she put her arm over it as she looked up, not that that it would do much good now. But as they looked at each other, both of their eyes’ widened in recognition, and they both froze.

Mr. Harris cleared his throat, startling both of them, and the girl, Elena, Andi was pretty sure she’d heard one of the other freshmen call her, quickly left the room, hugging her book to her chest.

Andi looked over at Mr. Harris and raised her hand. “Can I go to the bathroom?”

He sighed and said, “Don’t take too long.”

Andi grabbed her sketchbook and walked out of the room. “Hey.” She turned and looked at her. “Elena, right?”

Elena nodded. “You’re-” Andi nodded. “You’re Andi Mack.”

Andi stopped, tilting her head to the side as she realized that perhaps Elena hadn’t recognized her in the same way she’d thought. “Yeah… You know who I am?”

“Of course. I’ve seen some of your artwork around the school. And my brother told me you started the GSA last year.”

Andi smiled and nodded. “Well, that wasn’t just me…”

“You’re so cool.”

“Thanks.”

“Wait. How do you know who I am?”

“Oh. Um…” She looked down at her sketchbook as she gathered her thoughts and noticed Elena’s shoes. They were pink and sparkly, and there was no mistaking where she’d seen them before. She smiled and looked back up at Elena. “We actually met the other night.” She turned around her sketchbook to show her the drawing she’d been working on. “This is for you.” Elena looked at it more closely, still seeming confused. “Well, it’s one of several designs I’ve come up with. I wasn’t sure exactly what you wanted.” A look of recognition crossed her face, but she still looked kind of confused. Andi really hoped she was right about this. She looked up and down the hallway to make sure they were alone. She held up her hand and made a small white flower appear in her palm.

Elena gasped and looked up at her. “You’re-”

“Elena?”

Andi looked over and saw two boys walking toward them. (She knew they were in her grade but had never really talked to them before.) She pulled her sketchbook closer to herself, squishing the flower between it and her chest.

As they approached, the one she could only assume was Elena’s brother looked Andi up and down but otherwise didn’t acknowledge her before turning to Elena. “Are you ready to go?”

Elena nodded. “Yeah.” She looked at Andi and gave her a small wave. “I’ll see you around, Andi.”

Andi nodded and watched the three of them walk away before going back into the classroom. When she looked down at her sketchbook just before sitting down, she saw that it was turned to a different page and there was a phone number on it that definitely hadn’t been there before. Written next to it, were the words ‘ _ This one’s my favorite. Can you make it blue? -Permafrost _ .’ Andi smiled. The flower fluttered to the ground and she leaned down to pick it up. As she stood up, she saw Elena’s friends looking at her and got an idea.

She walked up to them and looked at one of the girls. “Belinda, right?”

The girl nodded slowly. “Yeah…”

“I think Elena meant to give this to you.” Andi handed her the flower. She took it, still looking confused and blushing just slightly. Mr. Harris cleared his throat pointedly again, and she went back to her seat.

Once she knew he wasn’t looking at her anymore, she pulled out her phone, put the number into it, and texted Elena.

**Andi** :

I see you’re leaning into the whole ‘confusing people into thinking you have ice powers’ thing

**❄** :

I’m owning it.


	5. Phantom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're switching perspectives a bit here to get ashlyn's conversation with kira!  
> I'm sorry this update took so long. to be honest, i've been having trouble motivating myself to work on this fic lately, so updates might be slower from here on, but i promise i'm not going to abandon it. i've come too far to give up now. thank you so much to everyone who has been reading this and leaving kudos and comments! it seriously means a lot to me. 💙

Ashlyn paced in the parking lot in front of Kira’s car, trying to figure out what exactly she wanted to say. She’d debated with herself for a while if she should approach Kira as Ashlyn or as Phantom before eventually deciding that Kira might be more comfortable talking to someone she knew could relate to her. Besides, she’d never actually talked to Kira before and couldn’t think of a good reason to as herself that wouldn’t be weird. She’d rather just be direct about why she was here. And to do that, she had to don the mask. Which maybe felt a little backwards, but she tried not to think about that as she watched students walk by, not one of them noticing her. 

Eventually, she saw Kira approach and stopped pacing. She waved her hand and said, “Hi.”

Kira jumped just slightly before narrowing her eyes. “Who are you? And where did you come from?”

“Sorry. I’m Phantom.” Kira raised her eyebrow at that. Which was fair. Due to the nature of her powers, people tended not to recognize her, even if she’d been fighting by Nini’s side for years. “And I’ve been here the whole time. You just didn’t see me. That’s kind of my superpower.”

“Invisibility?”

“Not quite. People only notice me when I want them to. It’s a psychic power. Kind of like yours.”

Kira froze and then looked around the parking lot before taking a step closer and narrowing her eyes. “What are you talking about?”

“I was there in the gym last week. With Sunflower.”

“So what do you want from me?”

“I just want to talk.” She nodded toward the car. “Do you think we could go somewhere more private? So it doesn’t look like you’re standing here talking to yourself.”

Kira bit her lip as she hesitated for a second before nodding once. She walked around Ashlyn and got into the driver’s seat of the car. Taking that as a yes, Ashlyn walked around to the passenger side and got in. “Are you hungry?” Kira asked as she started pulling out of the parking lot. “I just got out of basketball practice, and I could really go for a burger right now.”

“I’m vegan, actually.”

Kira glanced over at her for a second. “Burger King has a veggie burger now, doesn’t it?”

Ashlyn just nodded. 

They didn’t talk much as they drove, just sat there in an awkward almost silence. Ashlyn tapped her fingers on her legs along with the music that was playing on the radio.

Once they got their food, they stopped in the parking lot of a nearby park and sat in the car as they ate.

Ashlyn thought about how to bring up the subject as she finished her burger. “So… um. What happened last week in the gym, has that ever happened to you before?”

Kira took her time chewing her food and swallowing before she answered, still staring forward. She nodded slowly. “Once. In middle school. That’s why I transferred to Jefferson.” She shook her head. “I didn’t even remember it until it happened again.” She looked at Ashlyn. “How do you forget something like that?”

“Trauma does weird things to the brain. Especially when we’re young.”

She nodded. “Right. Yeah, I guess that’s one word to describe it.” Ashlyn gave her a sad smile. “I don’t even know what happened. But you said I have powers. That’s what that was?”

“That’s what it looked like to me. Someone losing control of powers they don’t know they have.”

“Did that ever happen to you?”

“Not quite like that, but it did take me a long time to learn how to control them. Or to even realize I had them. People would get startled whenever I talked because they’d forgotten I was in the room. There was like a solid week when I kept being marked absent from classes I definitely attended. It was actually my cousin who first noticed that something weird was going on. But I got it figured it out eventually.”

“And you decided to become a superhero?”

She shook her head. “Not at first. I had this friend.  _ She _ was a superhero. When I told her about my powers, she made it sound like the coolest thing in the world.” She smiled softly at the memory. “And when I saw her out there fighting crime every night, once I knew it was her, I couldn’t not be there by her side. And even now that she’s gone, I can’t just stop.”

Kira nodded as she realized who Ashlyn was talking about. “Oh. Yeah, what ever happened to her anyway? Didn’t she like disappear?”

Ashlyn shook her head. “She just moved. But don’t worry. We can handle the criminals of Salt Lake City just fine without her.”

Kira said sarcastically, “Yeah, all two of them.”

Ashlyn smiled. “Yeah… that’s fair. Things have been pretty quiet lately. But I’m not going to complain.” They had plenty college applications and standardized tests and papers and the school musical to worry about. If the criminals of the city wanted to take a break, she was happy to take one too. Although she couldn’t help but feel like this was just the calm before the storm. Especially since they’d found out about Permafrost and Kira. After all, their first big supervillain had shown up shortly after Andi had gotten her powers, and while some might call that a coincidence, Ashlyn didn’t believe in coincidences. The whole thing put her on edge.

“Well, I don’t think  _ I _ want to be a superhero,” Kira said.

“No one said you have to.”

“So what do I do then?”

“What do you  _ want _ to do?”

“I don’t know. I just… I don’t think I want…  _ that _ to happen again.”

“Well, trying to repress your powers will only make things worse, but you can learn how to control them.”

“You mean I could do something like that on purpose?”

Ashlyn wasn’t sure she liked the look Kira had in her eyes as she said that. She nodded slowly. “Hypothetically… It’s hard to say for sure what the exact limits of your powers are just based on that one incident. I’ve never actually met someone else with psychic powers before.”

“Right.”

“But if you want help figuring it out or just someone to talk to about it…”

Kira shook her head. “Thanks, but I’m good.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Do you need a ride home?”

“I’ll walk. Thanks. Let me know if you change your mind.” As she got out of the car, she left behind her phone number, just in case. She also left behind a tracker, also just in case. As much as she wanted to hope for the best with Kira and not let everything Buffy’s told her influence her opinions too much, she generally had a hard time trusting people, and Kira gave off some weird vibes. She waited until Kira had driven away before she started walking. Fortunately, she wasn’t too far away from Andi’s house. Not that Kira needed to know that that’s where she was headed.


	6. Meeting The Crew

Elena got onto a motorcycle for the second time ever. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t still scared, but she managed to not hold onto Andi quite as tightly this time. She looked around, taking in the view of the houses and trees flying by. And when they got to the secret entrance, she only tensed up a little bit. She got off the motorcycle and managed to not freeze time as she removed her helmet. She looked around the room and noticed that the lights were already on, and there were two people already there: one in the hammock chair and one sitting at the table in front of the computer, both of them looking at her. And she was pretty sure she recognized both of them.

Andi stepped up behind her and put her arm around Elena before leading her over to her friends to introduce them. “This is Buffy and Cyrus,” She said, pointing to each of them.

Elena nodded. “I’m Elena. And I already know who you guys are.” At their raised eyebrows, she nodded as she explained, “You guys are the Good Hair Crew. You’re kind of icons. Is it true you got arrested once?”

“Once?” Buffy asked with a teasing smile.

Elena’s eyes widened. “Wait. Have you guys been arrested more than once?”

They all shared a look and shrugged. “Perhaps,” Andi answered, walking around her toward the table. “But more importantly, I need your opinion on something.” Elena took a step closer to her. She grabbed some squares of blue fabric and held them out to her. “Which one? For your costume, I mean.”

“Oh.” She took them from Andi. “There are a lot.”

Andi nodded. “Yeah, I got a bit carried away.”

Elena looked at the fabric more closely. “Wait. Did you  _ make _ these?” They felt different than any fabric she’d touched before, in a way she couldn’t quite describe.

Andi shrugged. “Well, you can’t exactly just buy superhero-quality fabric at the craft store.” Elena couldn’t believe how much cooler Andi got every time she talked to her.

“She’s basically Edna Mode,” Buffy said, from where she was still sitting, her feet now up on the table.

“Does that mean I don’t get a cape?” Elena asked, only half joking.

“Correct. No capes. As cool as they look in theory, they mostly just get in the way and make things needlessly difficult.” Elena frowned, but realized she was probably right. Andi pointed at the fabric in her hands. “So… which one do you want?”

“Right.” She looked through them and bit her lip as she thought. “This one,” she finally decided, holding up one of the lighter ones.

Andi smiled. “I like that one, too.” She took the rest of the squares and looked through them for a second before pulling out one a couple shades darker and setting the rest on the table. “What do you think of this one with it? And maybe silver? As accent colors.”

Elena smiled. “Can the silver be sparkly?”

Andi grinned. “Hell yeah it can!”

Buffy turned to whisper loudly to Cyrus. “Oh god, there’s two of them.” Cyrus snorted.

Andi ignored them, taking the fabric square Elena was still holding and pulling her sketchbook out of her backpack. “This is so exciting.” She looked at the table and frowned before turning to Cyrus. “Cyrus, can you go get my colored pencils for me? They should be on my desk upstairs.”

He sighed and turned around to walk away. “Fine.”

“Thanks! You’re the best!” Andi called after him.

“So…” Andi turned back to Elena when she spoke. “You mentioned we were gonna start training today?”

Andi nodded. “Yep. Buffy’s actually going to be helping out with that today.”

“Oh.” Elena looked at Buffy, who stood up.

“Yep. I’m gonna teach you how to fight. Come on.” She held out her hand, and Elena took it, letting her lead her over to an empty area of the room. She hadn’t noticed before that the ground over here was different, softer, like it was cushioned, but still made of some sort of plant matter. They stood in the middle, facing each other. Buffy stood in what could only be described as a fight position, her knees bent, her hands up in fists. “Ok, let’s see what you can do.”

“Wait, now?”

Buffy shrugged. “Yeah, I wanna see what I have to work with. Don’t pull your punches.”

Elena nodded slowly. “Ok.” She tried her best to copy Buffy’s position. Not knowing what to do, she did the first thing she thought of: she froze time. She walked around behind Buffy and unfroze time as she kicked her in the back of the legs, knocking her to the ground. She was kind of surprised that it actually worked. Buffy seemed surprised too, but she recovered quickly, turning around and grabbing her leg, pulling her down to the ground.

Buffy stood up and held out her hand, smiling at her. “Not bad.” Elena accepted her hand and her help up. “But let’s try again without the powers.”

“Why?”

“I already know you can freeze time. I want to know if you can hold your own in a fight. When I said to not pull your punches, I meant that literally.”

“You want me to punch you.”

Buffy smirked. “I want you to try.” Elena nodded. She clenched her fist and swung it at Buffy, who dodged it easily. Buffy stood up straight. “Ok, maybe we should back up a bit and start with the basics.”

She was lying on the ground, exhausted, when she heard the elevator doors open and looked over to see someone she didn’t recognize step out carrying what appeared to be two pizza boxes. She sat up and turned to Andi, who explained, “Oh. That’s Ashlyn.”

Ashlyn walked up to them. “Also known as Phantom, not that most people would recognize me in costume anyway.” She shrugged. “You must be Permafrost.”

Elena nodded. “Yep. Though most people just call me Elena.”

Ashlyn nodded. “Nice to meet you, Elena. I hope your hungry.”

She was. Cyrus grabbed a blanket off the couch and put it on the ground, so they could have an “indoors picnic.” One pizza was all vegetables and vegan cheese, and the other was the exact opposite: sausage and pepperoni and extra cheese. Elena took a piece of each.

“So have y’all filled Elena in on the whole Kira situation yet?” Ashlyn asked between bites of the vegan pizza.

Elena turned to Andi with a confused look.

“We were getting to that,” Andi said.

“Who’s Kira?” Elena asked.

“She’s on my basketball team,” Buffy explained. “And we recently discovered that she has powers.”

Elena raised her eyebrows. “Oh. What kind of powers?”

Ashlyn answered, “Some kind of psychic powers. We aren’t sure exactly. We’ve only seen her use them on accident.”

“Oh.” Elena remembered hearing a rumor at school that something weird had happened last week during one of the girls’ basketball practices, but no one seemed to agree what it was. She’d learned her lesson about believing rumors long ago, so she hadn’t given it much thought. Until now. “What happened?”

Buffy answered, “She kind of blew up at practice and… well, it’s kind of hard to explain.”

“She can distort reality. Make you see things that aren’t there,” Ashlyn explained.

“Like hallucinations?” Elena asked.

“Kind of.”

Elena nodded. “Ok… So, what’s the ‘situation’ then?”

They all looked at each other. Ashlyn answered again, picking at her pizza slice. “Well, I talked to her yesterday, and she seemed, I don’t know, like she wanted to figure out what was going on, but she didn’t want my help. And she gave off some weird vibes. Like, what happened at practice last week scared her, but she also kind of wanted to see if she could do it again. On purpose.”

“Oh.”

Andi nodded. “Yeah, so she doesn’t want our help, but she hasn’t tried anything yet, so there’s not much we can do except keep an eye on her and try to prepare in case she  _ does  _ try something.”

Elena nodded. She hated that they basically just had to sit here and do nothing, but she didn’t know what else they could do.

“But you don’t have to worry about any of that right now. Just focus on training, and I’ll let you know if the situation changes,” Andi told her. Elena nodded, and Andi turned to Ashlyn, asking her if she’d missed anything at play practice.

Elena checked her phone and saw a message from Belinda. She smiled to herself as she responded.


	7. Queen of Mean

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (chapter title from queen of mean from descendants 3)

Kira was in her old middle school gym playing with the Monarchs. On the court, they all loved her. After all, she was the best, and they all knew it. The problem was that she knew it, too. And she wasn’t afraid to let everyone know. Off the court, they hated her. They didn’t even talk to her. They said she was bossy. Rude. Full of herself. Unfriendly. She wasn’t bossy. She was the boss. The captain. The star player. It wasn’t her fault the other girls couldn’t keep up. And how was she supposed to be ‘friendly’ if no one would be her friend? But whatever. She wasn’t here to make friends. She played to win. Basketball was all she was good at, so she had to be the best. And she was.

Even during practice. They were getting ready for their first big game of the season, and everything was going great. Until her coach started yelling at her for not passing the ball enough. Which didn’t make any sense to her. Why would she pass it to someone else who might not be able to make a basket when she knew she could?

Because it’s a practice. Because you’re kids. Because you’re learning. Because you’re supposed to be a team. There’s no I in team.

Well, there’s a me in team.

Her coach didn’t think that was very funny. Neither did the other girls. They were all looking at her like she was dirt on the bottom of their shoe. That was the moment it hit her. Just how much they all hated her. They tolerated her because she was good at basketball, but how long before that wasn’t enough? How long before they decided that winning games wasn’t worth keeping her around? After all, they didn’t seem to care about winning as much as she did. And that was the problem, wasn’t it?

Suddenly, the room was filled with a high pitched ringing sound. She tried covering her ears to block it out, but it didn’t make a difference. When she opened her eyes, she realized they all looked scared. Of her. The people around her started flickering in and out of existence, being replaced by a different team in a different gym. Buffy now stood where her coach had. She was also yelling at her. Kira couldn’t remember why.

“God, when are you gonna get over TJ? He’s gay! He’s never going to like you.” 

Oh right. That was why. Kira knew that. She knew TJ didn’t like her. She knew he was gay. She didn’t even like him anymore. And she didn’t care that he was gay. But that didn’t mean it felt great being constantly reminded of the fact that he’d chosen Cyrus over her. She’d thought he understood her. She’d genuinely wanted to be his friend. But then Buffy and Cyrus had gotten in his head and ruined everything. And now she had to watch TJ and Cyrus walk down the hallway holding hands, kissing in front of her locker, coming to practice to watch Buffy, along with all her other friends. Kira didn’t even have anyone to come watch her in their games.

But she didn’t say that. Of course she didn’t. Buffy didn’t care about all that. What she said was, “I don’t care that he’s gay. I just don’t want to see it all the time.” And yeah, she heard it. But she wasn’t going to take it back.

Buffy took a step closer. “God, one more homophobic comment like that-”

“I’m not homophobic-”

“If the next sentence out of your mouth is ‘I have a gay friend,’ I swear to god…”

Of course, that wasn’t what she was going to say. You kind of have to have friends at all to have a gay friend. And she wasn’t an idiot. She knew why that wasn’t an ok thing to say. To be honest, she didn’t really know what she was going to say to defend herself. She just rolled her eyes as Buffy continued, not waiting for a response.

“Look, you can hate me all you want. I don’t care. As long as it doesn’t affect the team. But if you bring my friends into it, or any kind of bigotry, then I won’t hesitate to kick you off my team again.”

Kira was back in middle school. At Jefferson this time. Sitting on that bench with Buffy as she kicked her off her team the first time. She tried play it cool. Act like she didn’t care. After all, the Spikes were hardly a real team anyway.

Kira had hated that she’d had to transfer schools, especially to one without a girls’ basketball team. But her dad had said it was for the best. And after what had happened with the Monarchs, it’s not like she’d be welcomed back there anyway. So she resigned herself to a year of no basketball. Then, she’d found out that Jefferson  _ did _ have a girls’ team. And not only that, but the captain knew who she was and wanted her on the team. Things were finally starting to look up. Until she actually met the team. They were, well as Buffy said, a hot mess. But it was something. And Buffy was good. Kira thought maybe they could joke about it together. Be friends. And then Buffy pulled the rug out from under her, and the one thing she cared about was taken from her. Again. Because she wasn’t ‘a team player.’ Very bold. Call that a team.

She got up and walked away, but the room started spinning. She turned and saw Buffy sitting at a different bench. At the park. With Cyrus.

“Kira is not a nice person. It only took me a day to figure that out. But since he’s a boy, it’ll take longer.”

Kira turned around, and suddenly, it was night, and she was standing in front of yet another bench. This time, in Andi’s backyard. This time, Cyrus was sitting with TJ.

“Where’s Kira?”

“I threw water on her, and she melted.”

They both laughed. “I actually buy that.”

“She’s not a nice person.”

“People used to say that about you.”

Kira stumbled back. Yeah, they did. She knew what people used to say about him. It was the same kind of stuff they used to say about her. That’s why she thought he got her. That’s why she’d wanted to be his friend. Maybe she’d gone about it the wrong way. Maybe she deserved it when he dropped her. But that didn’t make it hurt any less.

She opened her eyes and she was back in the gym at East High. Buffy and the rest of the team looked scared. Of her. Just like the Monarchs had. And there was still that high-pitched ringing in her ears. She closed her eyes again, and this time when she opened them, they were gone. The room was dark. Cold. And she was completely alone. Not just in the gym. In the whole world. There was no one. No one who cared about her. No one who was there for her. She felt like there was a physical hole in her chest. She felt tears start to fall down her cheeks, but she didn’t bother wiping them away.

She blinked, and the team was back. But now they were running around, as though this was a normal practice. But they were also talking and laughing, looking happier than she’d ever seen them. It was just a bit too loud and the lights were just a bit too bright. The girls ran right passed her as if she wasn’t even there. She put her hands out and yelled, willing anyone to notice her.

Silence.

Except that ringing that seemed to be getting louder. She was almost scared to open her eyes again. When she did, the girls were all on the ground. Unmoving. The room was dark and filled with a red light. She stumbled back again and fell to her knees. There was a small voice in the back of her voice telling her they deserved it. She pushed it down. There was another voice telling her that she deserved this. That one was harder to push down. She closed her eyes and put her hands over her ears, even though it didn’t do anything to stop the ringing. She didn’t want to open her eyes again. She didn’t know how things could get worse than this, but she didn’t want to find out.

She heard a voice talking to her, but she couldn’t understand what it was saying. She felt a hand on her arm as the voice started to get clearer and louder. It was saying her name.

Kira.

_ Kira. _

“Kira.”

Wait. She recognized that voice. She opened her eyes. “Dad?” Her voice cracked a bit. She was in her bed. She was safe. Her dad was standing over her looking worried.

“Kira? Are you ok?”

She sat up a bit and nodded, ignoring the way it made her head spin. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just a nightmare.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. “What time is it? Did I wake you up?”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Just go back to bed, ok?”

She nodded, and he brushed her hair out of her face and kissed her on the forehead. But when he left, she didn’t go back to bed. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the images from her nightmare. She grabbed her phone off her nightstand and scrolled through social media and played games until her alarm went off two hours later.

When she got in her car, she saw the piece of paper Phantom had left in the passenger seat with her phone number on it. There was even a little flower drawn on it. She crumpled it up and threw it on the floor of the car before she started driving to school. She didn’t need it. Sure, she’d been willing to hear her out the other day because she’d been desperate for any kind of answers, but she didn’t need to talk about her ‘feelings’ or whatever. And she didn’t trust someone in a mask. She’d been right about one thing though: Kira needed to stop repressing her powers and learn how to control them. She just didn’t need any help to do it.


	8. The Mall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall.... i know... it's been so long.... i'm sorry...  
> i'm finally writing again, so hopfully I'll start making more progress on this fic <3

Elena made her way to the theatre dressing room where Andi had told her to meet her. Not really knowing how to get there, she arrived slightly later than she meant to. She knocked on the open door, and Andi looked up from her sketchbook and smiled.

“You made it.” She set the sketchbook next to her and hopped off the counter. She walked over to Elena and closed the door before turning to her.

“What’d you need me for?”

“I need to take your measurements. For your supersuit. I probably should have done that when you were over the other day, but I forgot.”

Elena nodded. “Ok.” She set down her bag. “So what do you need me to do?”

Andi turned back to the counter and grabbed measuring tape, a small notebook, and a pencil. “Just stand there.”

Elena nodded and did as she asked. It felt kind of weird having someone take her measurements. Somehow, Andi managed to hold a conversation between telling her how to stand, telling her exactly what she was doing, making sure Elena was comfortable, and writing down numbers. “How long is this going to take?” She asked as Andi was measuring her arm.

“Not too much longer. Why? Got a hot date?” She joked.

Elena rolled her eyes. “I’m going to the mall with my friends, and I wouldn’t put it passed my brother to leave us behind if I’m late.”

Andi nodded as she moved to measure her other arm. “Don’t worry. I’m almost done. Who are you going to the mall with? Belinda?” She gave Elena a look that made her blush.

“Why would you assume it’s Belinda?”

“Because you’re always talking about her. And texting her. And like, the two minutes I saw you together, you were blatantly flirting.”

“I was not.”

Andi looked up at her. “Sure, you weren’t.” 

“ _ Anyway _ , I’m going to the mall with Sasha and Jessie. Belinda has detention today.”

Andi nodded. “Why  _ does _ she have detention all the time?”

“She’s late to school every day because her mom works nights.”

Andi stepped back, and Elena put down her arms. “Wait, seriously? I’m late to school everyday too, and I never get detention.” Elena shrugged. “Who does she have for homeroom?”

“Mr. Mazzara.”

Andi winced. “Oof. Yeah, he’s a bitch. He likes Ashlyn though. I could ask her to talk to him, if you want?”

That would be nice. “I’ll talk to Belinda about it.”

Andi nodded. “Cool. Well, I think we’re done here.”

Elena nodded and leaned down to pick up her bag. “Thanks. I should probably get going then.”

“Yeah, have fun with your friends. I’ll text you later.”

Elena turned and left, taking slight advantage of her powers to not be late. Or at least, not  _ as _ late. She found Sasha, Jessie, Bobby, and Liam waiting for her outside.

She apologized as she ran up to them.

“It’s about time.” Bobby turned and started walking to his car, Liam right by his side, and the girls had no choice but to follow.

“Where were you?” Sasha asked.

“Um, Andi needed my help with something.”

“You’ve been spending a lot of time with Andi lately,” Jessie said.

Elena shrugged and tried to push down her guilt. “I’m here now.”

They arrived at the car, and as Bobby got in the driver’s seat, he asked, “Didn’t Andi get arrested once?”

Sasha looked at Elena with wide eyes from the other side of the car, and Elena avoided her gaze as she got in the seat behind Liam’s. “Technically more than once. But it was while protesting. Peacefully.” She thought for a second as she put her seatbelt on. “Maybe don’t tell mom about that.”

Bobby shrugged and started backing out of the parking spot. “Sure, and I won’t tell her you’ve been on a motorcycle while we’re at it.”

Elena and Sasha’s eyes both widened, but for very different reasons.

“You aren’t actually going to tell her about that, are you?”

“You’ve been on a motorcycle?”

“Chill, Elena. I don’t care enough to rat you out.”

Elena sunk back in her seat, but then turned to Sasha and Jessie, who were looking at her expectantly. “Um… yes?” She decided it would be best to change the subject, so she asked Sasha about her how her advice column was going and happily let her ramble about that for the rest of the car ride.

When they got to the mall, the boys immediately abandoned them to go to the movie theatre. Jessie suggested going to Coffee Joe’s. As they stood in line, Elena looked up at the menu trying not to feel too intimidated by it.

Sasha looked at Jessie. “What should I get?”

Jessie looked up at the menu for a second before saying, “Oh, you should totally get a pumpkin spice frap.”

“Wait, isn’t that coffee?” Elena asked.

“Yeah, we’re at  _ Coffee _ Joe’s,” Jessie pointed out.

“Yeah, but Sasha doesn’t drink coffee.”

Sasha shrugged. “I don’t know. That does sound pretty good.”

Suddenly, they were at the front of the line, and Jessie was ordering two pumpkin spice fraps, leaving Elena to get herself a smoothie.

They walked through the mall, sipping their drinks and talking. They passed by the Halloween store, and Elena remembered, “Oh, I almost forgot. Andi invited us to a Halloween party next week.”

“Us?” Sasha questioned.

Elena nodded. “Well, technically, she invited me, but she said I can bring whoever I want. Her parties aren’t exactly exclusive.”

Sasha bit her lip and shared an excited look with Jessie, who said, “You got us an invite to our first high school party? Ok, maybe it’s not so bad that you’re friends with Andi now.”

Sasha nodded. “Oh, if it’s a Halloween party, are we supposed to dress up?”

Elena nodded. “Of course. Come on.” She grabbed Sasha’s free hand with her own and led her and Jessie into the Halloween store to look for inspiration.

After looking through the whole store, they started to get a bit discouraged. They looked up and down the aisles. Jessie gestured to the costumes. “Everything here is either overdone…”

“Uncomfortable,” Sasha added, looking at all the ‘sexy’ costumes.

“Or racist,” Elena added, frowning at costumes that had never been appropriate. She shook her head. “So we’ll just have to come up with something ourselves. That’s more fun anyway.”

“Got any ideas?” Sasha asked.

Elena looked around, trying to think of something three people could do together. After a few seconds, she got an idea and looked back at her friends with a smile. “Oh! What about the Schuyler sisters?”

Sasha grinned. “That’s perfect.”

Jessie smiled. “Ok, but I call Angelica.”

_ Oh. _ Well, Elena was totally Angelica, but that’s fine. She could be…

“Oh, can I be Eliza?” Sasha asked.

Once upon a time, Elena might have argued, but instead she just nodded and smiled, swallowing her disappointment and her pride as she said, “Perfect, then I get to be Peggy!”

They left the store and walked around the rest of the mall. They were trying on clothes at another store when Elena checked her phone and saw a text from Belinda. Actually several texts. Apparently detention was especially boring today, so she’d decided to start spamming Elena with memes. She laughed to herself as she looked through them and then started to type out a response.

“Elena?”

She looked up at the sound of Sasha’s voice and saw both her and Jessie looking at her. “What?”

“I asked what you think,” Sasha said, holding out her arms to show Elena the dress she was wearing.

Elena looked at it and smiled. “Oh.” She stood up. “It’s perfect.”

“Yeah?”

Elena nodded. “Totally.”

“Who were you texting anyway?” Jessie asked her.

Elena felt her face heat up. “Oh. Just Belinda.” That shouldn’t be a big deal, right? They were friends. Maybe Andi had gotten in her head. “She’s been spending her time in detention making memes. Do you want to see them?”

“Maybe later,” Sasha said. “I’m gonna go change.”

Elena nodded. “Yeah, we should head to the food court after this. Bobby and Liam’s movie is probably almost over.”

Sasha nodded and turned to go back into the dressing room.

Jessie gave Elena a curious look. “I feel like you’ve been texting Belinda a lot.”

Elena shrugged and tried to look casual, but she couldn’t not think about the fact that Jessie was the second person that day to point that out. And Jessie knew her a lot better than Andi did. “We’re friends.”

Jessie nodded slowly. “Yeah, but I mean, you’ve been texting her more lately than you usually do. What’s up with that?”

“Um…”

Sasha walked out of the dressing room then and interrupted them. “Ready to go?”

Elena nodded, doing her best to ignore the way Jessie was still looking at her. They went to the counter to check out and then left the store before making their way to the food court. Soon after they sat down with her food, she saw her brother and Liam walk into the room, notice the three girls, and find a table as far away as possible. She rolled her eyes and turned back to her friends.

After how weird the last week and half had been, it was nice to just hang out with her friends and talk about normal stuff like school and Skylar Zaxton and  _ Broomsbriar Academy _ .

When they were done eating, Sasha looked across the room and sighed. “I kind of want a pretzel but I’m not that hungry.”

Jessie followed her gaze. “God, same. Do you want to share one?”

Sasha nodded and the two of them stood up. “Oh, do you want one, Elena?”

Elena shook her head. “Nah, I’m good.” She picked at the last of her fries as she watched them walk away.

She pulled out her phone as she waited for them to come back and saw more memes from Belinda.

Elena: So, detention’s really boring today?

Belinda: i just got out, but yeah. it’s no fun when i’m alone :(

Elena: Do you want me to try to do something illegal, so I can join you next week?

Belinda: hell yeah. be gay do crime

Elena snorted at the irony of joking about committing crime, considering she was a superhero. (Well, superhero in training.) But she also couldn’t help but smile at how casually Belinda joked about being gay. Elena didn’t quite know what she was. Maybe that’s why she felt so weird about Andi clocking her maybe crush on Belinda that she herself was still in the process of figuring out. She was pulled out of her thoughts by another message on her screen, and smiled to herself again as she read it.

Belinda: not actually though. i wouldn’t ask you to do that

Elena: You know I would though if you did. But I can do you one better: I can break you out.

Belinda: Oh? A prison break? I’m not not interested…

Elena: Ok, not quite a prison break. I just found out my friend Ashlyn is kind of Mazarra’s favorite student? So if you want me to ask her to talk to him for you, maybe you could be free? See what it’s like to leave school while the sun’s still out

Belinda: i find it hard to believe that Mazarra would play favorites

Belinda: or that any student he likes would be cool enough to be your friend

Elena: Ok, technically, I’ve only met her once. She’s more like a friend of a friend. But she seems cool. And she’s co-captain of the Robotics Club

Belinda: hm

Belinda: well, if she’s offering, that’d actually be pretty great, but i don’t want to like bother her or anything

Elena looked up then, realizing that it had been a while and Jessie and Sasha weren’t back yet. She saw the two of them near the pretzel stand, talking together and sharing a pretzel. Sasha was twirling her hair. Sasha noticed her staring and turned to wave at her with a huge smile on her face. Elena waved back and tried to smile. Something felt off, but she could quite place her finger on what it was.

She tried to ignore it when they came back and when they met up with Bobby and Liam to go home, but it was hard. Still, if she was a little quieter than usual, no one said anything. She spent most of the rest of the weekend at the Greenhouse with Andi and the rest of the team, training and planning and also just talking. They were so cool, and Elena was still a little bit shocked that they were her friends now. It was almost enough to distract her from seeing on Instagram that Sasha and Jessie were hanging out without her. Sure, she was busy anyway, but it would have been nice to be asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you like this chapter! bonus points to anyone who guesses what the other characters' halloween costumes will be (i'll try to get the next chapter out by halloween, i promise! shit will be going down at that party)


	9. Halloween

It was Halloween, and Elena, Sasha, and Jessie were following Bobby and Liam down the street from where they’d parked their car to the Mack house. They boys were dressed as tennis players, which Elena found annoyingly uncreative, but she refused to be bothered by her brother tonight. Tonight, she was going to her first ever high school party with her best friends. As they approached the house, they could hear the music coming from it, and Elena squeezed Sasha’s hand in excitement, the three girls sharing matching grins.

When they walked through the door, Bobby and Liam immediately abandoned them, claiming to see their friends somewhere in the house. The girls entered more slowly, taking in everything around them and letting the fact that they were here sink in. 

It didn’t take long for Andi to come greet them, appearing out of seemingly nowhere. “Hi, guys! I’m so glad you made it. And I love your costumes! The Schuyler sisters?”

They all put their hands up in the ‘work’ pose before giggling together. Elena was relieved when Andi joined in.

“You guys are too cute. Sasha and Jessie, right?” Andi asked, gesturing to each girl as she said their name.

They all nodded. “Nice to meet you,” Sasha said.

“What’s your costume?” Jessie asked.

Andi glanced down at her all black outfit. She also had her hair back in a very short pony tail and had drawn a little mustache on her face. She raised her eyebrows at them. “Um? Westley? From  _ The Princess Bride _ ?”

“Oh my god! I love that movie!” Sasha said.

Andi grinned at her. “Me too.” She gestured over her shoulder with her thumb. “My girlfriend is dressed as Buttercup.”

Elena looked over and saw Libby in a red flowy dress having a sign conversation with a boy who didn’t seem to be wearing a costume. “You two are too adorable.”

Andi shrugged one shoulder. “I know. We’re pretty much in a constant battle with TJ and Cyrus over who the cutest couple is. Buffy hates it,” she added with a grin.

Elena laughed. That was some stiff competition there, but she was pretty sure Andi and Libby were winning.

“Anyway, I should probably go entertain some more of my guests. The food is over there.” She pointed at the table covered in snacks near the back. “And my mom is over there DJ-ing,” she pointed behind her to the DJ booth set up near a small stage. “if you need to send your mom proof that we have adult supervision here.” She said that like she knew exactly what it was like to have strict, overprotective parents, even though from what she knew of the woman, Bex hardly counted as ‘adult supervision.’ Still, Elena appreciated it. Andi waved at them. “I’ll see you guys around. Let me know if you need anything.” She walked past them toward another group of teenagers.

Elena had fun dancing and hanging out with Sasha and Jessie, but some time over the next half hour or so, they ended up getting separated, and she found herself grabbing a beverage at the snack table. As she grabbed herself a juice pouch, she saw Belinda walking up to her and grabbed one for her too.

Belinda smiled as she accepted it. “Thanks.”

Elena smiled back at her. “I’m glad you came.”

Belinda nodded. “It’s amazing how much time I have now that I’m not spending every day after school in detention. Did you know that there’s this big ball of fire in the sky that makes everything warm and bright?”

Elena snorted. “I’m pretty sure the sun isn’t actually on fire. Though science isn’t exactly my strong suit.”

Belinda laughed. “The only downside though is that now Mazarra keeps trying to recruit me to the Robotics Club? And he’s almost got Dylan convinced too.”

Elena lit up. “Oh my goddess! You guys should totally do it!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean, now that you have time… And it could be fun?”

Belinda bit her lip and nodded. “Ok, I’ll think about it.”

Elena smiled at her, and they both looked out at the party as they sipped their drinks. After a second, Elena nudged her with her shoulder. “So… what’s your costume?” She’d been trying to figure it out since she’d seen her. At first, she almost thought she wasn’t wearing one, but Belinda didn’t usually wear green. Or any colors for that matter. And she had her hair in low pigtails.

She looked at her with a teasing smile. “What, you can’t guess?” Elena bit her lip as she tried to think, but eventually gave up and shook her head. “Come on, I know we made you watch the movie.”

Elena tried to think. She realized that Belinda’s shirt had flowers on it, and her outfit looked like something from an old movie like  _ High School Musical _ or something. She thought about movies the six o’clockers had made her watch, and then it finally hit her. “Oh! It’s uh…” She scrunched up her face as she tried to think of the name. She remembered Buffy teasing Andi about her powers being similar the other day. “From  _ Sky High _ ! Layla! The one with the plants.”

Belinda nodded. “Yeah, you should see the others’ costumes. They’re around here somewhere.” She gestured vaguely to the crowd.

For a second she felt a little disappointed that they’d done a group costume without her before remembering that she’d done a group costume without them first. Still, it kind of hurt. Especially now that she had no idea where she ‘sisters’ had disappeared to.

She found them eventually. After talking to Belinda and the rest of the six o’clockers for a while, the four of them wanted to dance together, but she saw Sasha and Jessie together across the room and decided to go talk to them instead. She wasn't sure if she was imagining it, but she could have sworn she saw Belinda’s face fall.

Sasha and Jessie were talking to one of Andi’s friends, and Elena heard Jessie ask about his costume as she approached.

“Regular kid before he finds out he’s a superhero,” he answered easily before taking a sip of his drink.

Buffy, quite the opposite in her gorgeous yellow ball gown, appeared and put her arm around him. “That’s what he says every year. Jonah doesn’t  _ do _ dressing up.” She kissed him on the cheek. “But we love him anyway.”

Elena smiled at them.

“Your costume is amazing,” Sasha gushed.

“Thanks,” Buffy said with a smile. “Perks of being best friends with the drama department’s costume designer. They did  _ Beauty and the Beast _ a couple years ago, and I happen to be the same size as the lead.”

Jonah snorted into is his cup, and Buffy shot him a quick glare.

Elena shook off her confusion and asked, “So is Marty the Beast then?” She assumed since Andi and Libby and Cyrus and TJ had done couple’s costumes, they would too.

But Buffy just rolled her eyes. “Please, couple’s costumes are so cliche.”

“He’s actually dressed as Gaston,” Jonah said.

Elena raised her eyebrows. That was…  _ almost _ a couple’s costume?

Buffy explained, “He said Halloween’s supposed to be scary, and what’s scarier than,” she waved her hands in front of her pretending to be spooky, “Toxic Masculinity.”

Elena, Sasha, and Jessie all laughed. Ok yeah, they couldn’t argue with that.

Suddenly, Buffy tensed up, seeing something behind Elena. Elena turned and saw a newcomer to the party, dressed in all red, complete with devil horns and a mask. Elena didn’t recognize her, but clearly Buffy did. “She wasn’t invited,” she muttered.

“I, uh, thought this party wasn’t invite-only?” Sasha asked nervously.

Buffy finally broke her gaze from the other person and gave Sasha a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Right. Of course not.” She glanced around the room. Jonah was giving her a concerned look. “Unrelated: do any of you know where Andi is?”

“Is something wrong?” Sasha asked.

Buffy smiled at her again. “Of course not.” She glanced around the room again, lighting up when she saw something, presumably Andi. “Sorry guys, I need to borrow Elena for a second.” She took her hand and led her away, occasionally glancing back at the mysterious girl in red.

When they found Andi, all Buffy had to do was give her a look, and she removed herself from the group she was talking to to join the two of them. “What’s up, guys?”

“Kira’s here,” Buffy said, nodding her head to the side.

Andi looked where she was pointing. “Oh.” She took a deep breath and nodded once. “Ok… Maybe, it doesn’t mean anything. Maybe she just wanted to come to the party?”

Buffy seemed doubtful, saying sarcastically, “Yeah, cause she had such a great time at the last one of your parties she came to.”

Andi bit her lip. “Ok, you do have a point. I don’t want to assume the worst, but you should probably go warn Ash?”

Buffy nodded and disappeared into the crowd. Andi turned to Elena. “Sorry. Buffy’s probably just being paranoid, but…” Andi didn’t sound like she believed her own words, her eyes constantly flickering over to Kira. She bit her lip. “Actually… I’ll be right back. Can you keep an eye on her? But don’t do anything.”

Elena nodded and watched Andi disappear. She tried her best watch Kira without seeming suspicious, but she didn’t really know what she was looking for or what she was supposed to do when she saw it.

Elena tensed as she saw Kira walk up to the DJ booth and unplug it. Bex gave her an offended look. All eyes turned on Kira as she ignored her and walked up on the stage. “You know, I gotta say, this party is pretty lame.”

“Yeah, well, we were doing fine before you turned off the music,” Bex responded.

Kira glared at her before turned back to the crowd with a devious smile. “Why don’t we make things more interesting?”

She held up her hand, and the decorations around the room started to come to life, spiders crawling all over the walls, bats flying around the room. The fear that filled the room felt almost tangible.

Suddenly, a vine came flying out of nowhere and wrapped around Kira’s wrist. The illusion cracked, flickering in and out of existence before fading entirely as Kira angrily turned her attention to the source. Sunflower was standing on the other side of the room, glaring at her through her mask. “She said they were doing just fine without you,” She said as she walked up onto the stage.

Kira glared at her and shook the vine off her wrist. “What are you doing here?”

“Funny, I was just about to ask you the same question.”

Kira put out her hand, palm forward, toward Andi. Andi cried out as she doubled forward and put her hands over her ears, stumbling back a little, almost falling off the stage. The whole crowd gasped. On instinct, Elena froze time. She looked around and saw the worried look on Bex’s face. Looking through the crowd, she saw that Buffy looked angry, like she was barely restraining herself from jumping up on that stage and punching Kira herself. Who knows? Maybe if Elena unfroze time right now, she’d do it. But she’d probably just get herself hurt in the process. Elena didn’t see Ashlyn, but she decided not to focus too hard on what that meant.

She shook her head. _ Ok, focus _ . She had to do something. But she had to do it without anyone knowing it was her because  _ she _ didn’t have a mask. Not yet. She very carefully made her way through the crowd up to the stage. She looked between the two supers and bit her lip as she thought of what to do. She saw the small platforms near the stage and had an idea. She moved one of them next the stage behind Andi, so she wouldn’t fall off. Then, she kicked Kira’s legs out from under her, causing her to fall down. Hopefully, that would at the very least buy Andi some time.

Elena carefully made her way back through the crowd and tried to put herself back in the same position she’d been in before, hoping that everyone would be too distracted to notice if she was a little off. (She got Andi’s point about capes now; it was impossible to make sure her dress looked exactly as it had before.) She unfroze time and watched Andi stumble back a bit, catching herself before she fell and dropping her arms as she looked up in confusion. And she was far from the only one confused.

Kira, now on the ground, looked around. “What the?”

Andi, being more familiar with Elena’s powers by now, figured out what had happened and managed to compose herself, walking toward Kira and looking down on her as vines crept around the stage and wrapped around Kira’s wrists and ankles.

Kira glared at her. “What’d you do?”

Andi shrugged. “I prefer to think of this as a team effort.” 

Kira looked at her with wide eyes and then seemed to fade out of existence, the vines around her hitting the wooden stage with a soft  _ thunk _ .

Andi seemed startled for a second, but did a good job of hiding it as she turned to the crowd. “Is everyone ok?”

Everyone started talking at once. She put her her hand up to try to quiet them. “Ok, one at a time: is anyone hurt?”

No one said anything.

Andi nodded. “Ok, good. I’m gonna make sure she’s really gone and keep an eye on things. You guys should get back to your party. Don’t let her ruin your fun.” She smiled and then glanced at her mom, who just nodded and then restarted the music as Sunflower hopped off the stage and disappeared.


	10. Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [fic playlist!](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RNhkhPrQB80inA7F3PM08?si=NqXBMPZhQRuNOqbivJ-9_g)  
> [Andi and Ashlyn's supersuits!](https://localspacelesbian.tumblr.com/post/635428190563745792/i-attempted-to-draw-andi-and-ashlyns-superhero) (Elena's will be coming soon!)

“Elenita, can you go make sure that your brother’s up?”

Elena sighed and ran back upstairs. She knocked on Bobby’s door. When she didn’t hear a response right away, she ignored the keep out sign on the door like she always did and opened the door. She saw him still laying in bed, barely lifting his head up. At least, she thought she did. Suddenly, the bed was empty. She heard a voice coming from their shared bathroom and looked over to see Bobby poke his head out, a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. “I’m up, Jeez! How many times do I have to tell you to stay out of my room,” he complained as he turned back to the sink.

She opened the door the rest of the way and walked in. “What just happened?”

He spit into his sink and then turned back to her. “You invaded my privacy. Again.”

She stepped closer to him. “No, I mean, you were just in bed, and then you were over here.”

“What are you talking about?” He shook his head and then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You must have been seeing things, Elena. I’ve been in here the whole time.”

“I know what I saw, Bobby.” She gasped as she realized what it was. “Oh my goddess, did you freeze time?”

“What? Why would you think that?” He looked at her like she was crazy, but she could see in his eyes that he knew he’d just been caught in a lie. He pushed passed her back into his bedroom, and she followed.

“No, it makes sense. I’ve been trying to figure this out for weeks now, but if you can do it too-”

He froze. “Wait. What do you mean ‘too?’”

She stopped and looked up at him. “Oh. Right. Um…” She froze time and ran through the bathroom back to her own room to grab her mask. The one she’d worn on her first night out. (Andi  _ still _ hadn’t finished her supersuit yet. Not that she was getting impatient or anything…) She put it on and ran back into Bobby’s room, unfreezing time. “Surprise! I’m a superhero! Well, superhero-in-training.”

His eyes widened and he stepped closer to her, whisper-yelling, “What the hell, Elena?”

“Kids! Breakfast is ready!”

They both looked over to the door and then back at each other. He started to walk passed her toward the door, but just as he bumped her shoulder, she panicked and froze time again. Except, he didn’t freeze. She looked around the room and saw a fly frozen midair near his window. But Bobby wasn’t frozen.

“What the hell?” He repeated.

“Ok, I didn’t know that could happen.” She’d never frozen time  _ with _ someone else before.

“Yeah, neither did I.”

“On the bright side, now we can talk without being late for Sambled eggs?” She shrugged. He rolled his eyes and moved to sit on his bed, sighing and running his hands through his hair. She sat next to him. “So, you can freeze time too, right? This isn’t just me?”

He nodded. “Yep.”

“Since when?”

He shrugged. “I guess since I was about your age? I don’t know.”

“You’ve known for two years, and you didn’t tell me? Do you have any idea how long I’ve been freaking out trying to figure out how this happened?”

“Hey, you didn’t tell me either. And how was I supposed to tell anyone? It’s crazy. Like, the opposite of chill.”

“But weren’t you curious about where it came from?”

He shrugged. “I guess maybe a little bit.”

“If we can both do it, that probably means it’s genetic, right?”

He shrugged again. “That makes sense.”

“Do you think mom can do it, too?”

“Do you want to be the one to ask her? Because I don’t. She’d definitely freak out, and you know there’s no way she’s gonna let you keep being a superhero or whatever if she finds out.”

She nodded her head to the side. He did have a point. That was why she hadn’t told her already, but now she had so many more  _ questions _ . “So  _ you  _ aren’t going to try to stop me?”

He shrugged. “What’s the point? You’re gonna do it anyway. Just, you know, be careful or whatever. Cause if you die, I’ll kill you.”

She snorted. “Ok fine.” She sat up and held out her hand. “Come on, I’m hungry.”

He snorted and took it, standing up. “Yeah, me too. I feel like it’s been forever since we’ve had Sambled eggs.”

“It’s been like three days.” She rolled her eyes

They unfroze time together before leaving his bedroom. He stopped her just before they got to the stairs and pointed her face. She was confused for a second before she remembered she was still wearing the mask. She hurriedly took it off and shoved it in her pocket.

Elena spent her free period in the library doing research. It took less time than she was expecting to find what she was looking for. There was a superhero active in the Salt Lake region in the 90’s and early 2000’s. He retired the year Bobby was born. There were some articles about him showing up again in the years after that, but they were few and far between. The more recent ones talked about his death. Not just the same year, the same  _ day _ her dad died. She felt her eyes start to water as she looked through the pictures of him. Even with the mask, she recognized him easily. She sent what she found to her phone before logging out of the computer.

She paced outside the classroom Bobby was in as she waited for the bell to ring. When it did, she watched the rest of the class leave the room, and as soon as she saw Bobby, she ran up to him and grabbed his wrist.

“Elena? What are you doing here?”

“I need to show you something.”

Looking annoyed, he excused himself from his friends and followed her to an empty hallway. “This better be important.”

She nodded and pulled out her phone to show him one of the pictures she found.

“Some guy in a costume?”

“Look closer.” He did, still seeming a bit confused. “Guess what his powers were.” He looked up, waiting for her to go on. “Freezing time.”

That did it. His eyes widened, and he looked back down at the picture and then up at her. “Wait. You think this was dad? That’s crazy.”

“Is it though?” She swiped the screen to a different picture, one where you could see his face a bit better. “He looks just like him. And he has the same power as us.”

“Don’t you think mom would have told us if our dad was a superhero?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She took her phone back. “But it can’t be a coincidence, can it?”

He seemed to consider it, but then he shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t really want to think about this right now.”

Elena deflated as she watched him walk away.

Elena set a folder down on the table in front of her mom, not quite slamming it, but loud enough to get her attention.

She looked up in her in surprise. “Elena? What is this?”

Bobby, getting what she was doing, said, “Elena…”

She looked at him. “Look, you may not want to know, but I do.” Her fear of her mom’s reaction had been outweighed by her need for answers. She looked at her mom. “Open it.”

She did, and when she saw what was in it, she covered her mouth with her hand. “Elena, what is this?” She repeated, still looking at the papers in the folder.

“That’s dad, isn’t it?”

She looked up at Elena. “How did you-”

“Just answer the question.”

She nodded. “Yes. It is. Where did you find this?”

“The internet. It wasn’t that hard actually.” She sat down. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

She sighed. “He was supposed to be the one to tell you kids. And when he was gone, I just didn’t know how. And I guess…” She reached out and took Elena’s hand in her own. “Your father was a great man. A hero. But the life he led was dangerous. It got him killed. And I guess a part of me thought that by distancing you kids from it as much as possible, I was protecting you. I’m sorry.”

Elena nodded slowly and started to get out of her chair. “I’m gonna…” And she turned around and left. She heard her mom calling after her, but she kept going. She got on her bike and rode away.

She ended up going down the now familiar path to the Greenhouse. The door opened as she approached and closed behind her. 

“Elena?” She looked over and saw Andi sitting at the table, looking up at her in concern.

“Oh. Andi. I didn’t know you’d be here,” she said as she got off her bike and took off her helmet, putting it in the basket.

Andi raised an eyebrow. “I’m working on your costume, actually.”

“Oh.” She walked toward her. “How’s that coming along?”

“I’m almost done. Except, you still haven’t told me what you which symbol design you like better, so I can’t add that yet.”

Elena nodded and looked down at the table, tapping it lightly with her fingers. Andi had come up with a couple different designs for her, and while they were all great, something just felt off, and she couldn’t figure out what it was. But now it hit her. “Actually, I had an idea about that.” Andi turned a little in her seat, giving her a curious look. Elena took out her phone and pulled up one of the photos of her dad she’d been looking at earlier. She zoomed in to the symbol on his chest, a red and gold hourglass. She turned her phone around to show Andi.

Andi took the phone, looking at it closely before looking back at Elena. “What is this?”

Elena sat down in the chair next to Andi and took her phone back, setting it on the table. “It’s a long story, and I don’t think I want mine to be exactly like that, but something reminiscent of it, if that makes sense?” She didn’t really know how to articulate her thoughts, so she hoped Andi got what she was trying to say.

Andi looked back at the picture and nodded. “I think that I can work with that. Can you send me that picture?”

Elena nodded and picked up the phone again. She cropped the picture and sent it to Andi before setting the phone down again, locking it this time.

After a couple seconds, Andi asked, “So… is that the reason you came over? Or…”

Elena looked down at her feet and shook her head.

Andi rolled her chair a little closer to her. “Elena, are you ok?”

Elena nodded and looked up. “Yeah, it’s just kind of a long story.”

Andi nodded slowly. “Have you had supper?”

Elena shook her head. Sam had gone out to get them food. She wondered if they would save her anything. She wanted to say yes, but she didn’t trust Bobby and his teenage boy stomach.

Andi stood up and held out her hand. “Have you ever been to The Spoon?”

“What’s that?”

Andi just smiled, and Elena took her hand, standing up and letting her lead her over to where her motorcycle awaited.

As they slipped into a booth in the back corner of the diner, Andi pulled her phone out of her pocket and furrowed her brow at it. “Why did your mom text me?” She looked up at Elena. “How does your mom even have my number?”

Elena shrugged. Honestly, she had no idea, but she also wasn’t surprised. “What’d she say?”

“She just asked if I know where you are.”

“What are you going to tell her?”

Andi bit her lip and dicated as she typed. “Yeah, she’s fine. We’re getting dinner. I’ll make sure she’s home before curfew.” She raised her eyebrows as Elena. Elena nodded and watched as Andi hit send and then put her phone down.

A waitress came by a second later to take their orders, and as she walked away, they fell into a slightly awkward silence for a second before Andi asked, “Have I ever told you how I got my powers?”

Elena shook her head. She’d asked once, but Buffy shut her down.

Andi nodded and took a breath, looking down and fidgeting with a straw wrapper as she talked. “It was a couple years ago, when I was about your age. I was at this park near Jefferson, protesting it being torn down and turned into a parking lot. I don’t remember why exactly, but I decided to climb this really big tree near where we all were gathered. And then it started to rain, and a few people left, and Cyrus told me to come down, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. Until suddenly it got darker and sprinkling turned into pouring rain. Everyone else ran for shelter, but Cyrus and Buffy stayed and waited for me. Just as I was trying to climb down, the tree was struck by lightning.”

Elena inhaled sharply. She’d heard the rumors; her brother was in Andi’s grade after all, and she’d seen the scars on Andi’s arms the few times she’d seen her without sleeves, but she’d been afraid to ask.

Andi nodded, more to herself than to Elena. She looked up. “The next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital. There was this vase of flowers on the table next to my bed, and they were starting to wilt, but when I looked at them, they came back to life.”

“Oh.” Elena wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. “I’m sorry.”

Andi gave her a small smile. “Don’t be. I wouldn’t change anything.” She glanced down at the table, and her smile fell. “I didn’t even really remember anything between the lightning and waking up in the hospital, not even the pain really.” She took a deep breath. “Until Saturday. When Kira…” She made a vague motion with her hand, not really sure how to explain what Kira had done, but Elena got what she meant. “It was like I was back there reliving it and feeling every bit of it, the electricity, falling, Buffy almost catching me…” She looked up at Elena. “And then it was just gone, and I was back in my living room.” She smiled. “You know, I don’t think I ever thanked you for that. I honestly don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t stepped in then.”

“Really?”

Andi nodded, but before she could say more, their waitress came by with their food. They thanked her and then waited for her to leave before turning back to each other. “Seriously, you were kind of amazing.”

Elena would be more grateful for the compliment if Andi hadn’t stolen one of her fries as she said it. Instead, she just gave her an offended look.

Andi laughed and then offered Elena one of her baby taters in exchange.

Elena took it and put it in her mouth. Her eyes widened. “Oh my goddess.” She swallowed the baby tater. “This is amazing.”

“I told you.” Andi turned her basket around to give Elena more easy access to her baby taters, and Elena did the same to share her fries.

The two of them didn’t talk much as they ate, but Elena’s mind continued to race. She thought about what Andi had told her and everything that had been going on with Kira and everything that had happened the past few weeks. But mostly she thought about what she had discovered earlier that day.

Eventually, as Elena frowned at the last of her fries, she heard Andi say, “I can almost hear you thinking.”

She looked up to see Andi staring at her, a small smiled on her face. “Oh. Sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize. What’s up?”

Elena shrugged with a sigh. “I, uh, I figured out where my powers came from today.”

Andi’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh.”

Elena nodded. “Apparently, it’s genetic. As is my hero complex.”

“What do you mean?”

“Turns out that’s what got my dad killed.”

“Oh.” Andi reached out and took Elena’s hand in her own. “I’m sorry.”

Elena shrugged. “I just- I found out my parents have been lying to me my whole life. It’s like this image I have in my head of who my dad was has been wrong this whole time. And I can’t even be mad at him because he’s gone.”

Andi squeezed her hand. “You can still be mad at him. And your mom. I may not know what it’s like to lose a parent, but I do know what it’s like to find out that your parents have been lying to you your whole life. It’s hard. It feels like your brain is melting, and everything has been turned upside down. And it’s like you’re grieving your dad all over again. But that image you have of him in your head, it’s not wrong. It was just incomplete. And now you have another piece of it, and it’s a piece that connects you to him even more.”

Elena nodded. Andi was right. She just wished she could have shared that connection with him while he was still here.

Andi squeezed her hand again. “And hey, maybe one day when you aren’t so angry, you can talk to your mom about it. Cause she and your brother know what you’re going through better than anyone else. But you also have me. And the whole team. Whenever you need us.”

“I know. Thank you.”

Andi shrugged. “Hey, that’s what family does. We’re here for each other. Every time.”


	11. Who Are You?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was supposed to just be some elena finally getting her supersuit fluff, but somehow it turned into elena&sasha angst, so i am sorry  
> [elena's supersuit](https://localspacelesbian.tumblr.com/post/636527108572823552/sorry-i-havent-posted-anything-for-doafp-week)  
> [fic playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RNhkhPrQB80inA7F3PM08?si=ggTAR66oRRa1D2JS77Qjsw)

Elena was standing at her locker talking to Sasha when Andi walked up to them, an excited look on her face.

“Hey, Andi, what’s up?” Elena was pretty sure they didn’t have any plans today.

“It’s done.”

“What’s done?” Sasha asked. Andi looked between the two freshman, giving Elana a pointed look.

It took Elena a second to figure out what she was trying to say, but when she did, her eyes went wide. “Oh my goddess! It’s done?”

Andi nodded quickly, nearly bouncing in her excitement. “Come on, I want to show you!”

Elena nodded and shut her locker, equally excited.

Until Sasha reminded her, “Wait, I thought you were coming over to my house today, so we could work on that history project together.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Andi apologized. “I didn’t mean to take you away from your friend.

Elena looked between the two, contemplating. “Well… it shouldn’t take that long, right?” she asked Andi.

Andi nodded slowly. “Yeah, and I can drop you off at Sasha’s house after if you want.”

Elena turned back to Sasha. “I promise I’ll be there in like half an hour, ok?”

Sasha nodded, but her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah. Ok. I’ll see you then.” She turned and walked away.

Elena looked back at Andi, biting her lip. “Am I a bad person?”

“Of course not.” Andi gave her a small smile and put her arm around her as they started to walk out of the school together. “Don’t worry. You’ll make it up to her. And you’ll get better at balancing your social life and your school life and your super life. Trust me, it took me forever to get the hang of it, but as Miss Jenn likes to say, ‘a true triple threat means singing, acting, and being organized.’”

Elena frowned up at her. “But I’m not an actor. Or a singer.”

Andi shook her head. “Neither am I, but the point still stands. Besides, after seeing Ashlyn somehow handle being in like six different clubs on top of all of this, school, and having a social life, which includes a girlfriend who lives on the other side of the country, I try not to complain too much about not having enough time.”

Elena nodded as she pushed open the door to go outside. “Yeah… how  _ does _ she do that?”

Andi shrugged. “No idea. I think that’s her real superpower.”

Elena snorted. “That kind of literally  _ is _ my superpower, and I barely have enough time for anything.”

“You’ll get there. Just don’t forget to take care of yourself along the way.”

_ Well that’s easier said than done. _

When they got to the Greenhouse, Andi lead Elena over to a curtain of vines that Elena was sure hadn’t been there before. “Your dressing room awaits.”

Elena laughed and walked through the vines. It was about as big as the average dressing room with a small chair and a full length mirror leaning against the one real wall. Folded neatly on the chair sat her new supersuit, and a pair of dark blue boots sat on the floor next to it.

She changed into the suit as quickly as she could, putting on the silver pants, dark blue shirt, and light blue jacket. She sat on the chair to put the boots on, and then took a deep breath before standing up to look at herself in the mirror. It looked exactly like the pictures Andi had shown her but now it was  _ real _ . She didn’t know what Andi had made the fabric out of, but it was somehow soft and stretchy and comfortable while also being durable and (apparently) nearly indestructible. It wasn’t flowy like Andi and Ashlyn’s, which Elena had been kind of disappointed about at first, but she knew Andi was right. It would be a lot easier to freeze time without anyone finding out if she didn’t have to worry about getting the fabric of her clothes back into the exact same position. (She was still worried someone had noticed her on Halloween, even though no one had said anything.) She zipped up the asymmetrical jacket, and her eyes settled on the symbol that was right over her heart. It was an hourglass just like her dad’s, except where his was bigger and all sharp edges, hers was smaller and rounder. Where his appeared to be full of golden sand, hers had silver and white glitter that looked like little snowflakes frozen in time.

“Elena? Are you done? I want to see it!”

Elena shook herself out of her thoughts and called back, “Yeah, just a sec!”

She took one last look in the mirror before walking out into the main room to show Andi, putting her arms out and spinning around in a circle. Andi clasped her hands together in front of her face. “Awww, Elena! It looks so much better on you than on a mannequin.”

Elena laughed. “Thanks? I think.”

“But there’s one thing missing.” Andi grabbed something off the table and walked closer to Elena to show her. It was a silver mask. Her mask. She put it on Elena and then stepped back, smiling at her. It was molded to fit her face perfectly.

“How do I look?”

“Badass.”

Elena smiled. “Thanks. I love it so much. You’re amazing, you know that?”

They hugged, and Andi laughed as they separated. “Thanks. Sorry it took so long. I’ve been busy.”

“It was worth the wait. Seriously.” Elena bit her lip. “So… when do I get to test this thing out?”

“How about tonight?

The whole time Elena was working with Sasha on their history project, she kept nervously checking the time on the phone, excited to go out with Andi that night. She was pretty sure Sasha was getting annoyed by it, but she couldn’t stop herself.

Finally, Sasha sighed and set her pencil down. “Elena, is there somewhere else you need to be tonight?”

“What? No, of course not.”

Sasha wrinkled her brow. Her voice got quieter as she asked, “Elena, are you lying to me?” Elena looked down. “Since when do we lie to each other?”

“Sasha…” She didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah…” She closed her textbook. “You know what, I think I’ll just do this project with Jessi instead.”

Elena sat up straight in surprise. That stung. “Of course you’d rather do it with Jessi.” She didn’t mean for that to come out like that, but maybe she was more bitter than she’d previously let herself believe.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just that the two of you have been hanging out without me a lot lately.”

“Maybe because you keep blowing us off for your new friends.”

Elena wasn’t sure when Sasha stood up, but suddenly she was standing too. “Well, I’m here now!”

“But you aren’t here, Elena. Not really. You’re somewhere else, and you won’t even tell me where or why.”

Elena opened her mouth to respond and then closed it again. What could she say? She couldn’t tell her. She was dying to. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t tell her about herself without telling her about Andi too, and that wasn’t her secret to spill. She felt tears in her eyes, and her voice cracked as she said again, “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. You said that.” Sasha looked down. Elena looked at her for a second, waiting. For what, she didn’t know. Just anything. For her to look at her even. But nothing came, and eventually, she gave up, grabbed her stuff, and ran.

When she got outside, she wiped her eyes and texted Andi to come pick her up. Then, she froze time and tried to shake the bad feelings out of her body as she looked for a suitable place to change. She knew it wouldn’t matter if anyone could see her since time was frozen, but she still felt weird doing it out in the open. She found a somewhat secluded alleyway, and pulled her supersuit out of her backpack. She changed quickly and shoved her clothes back in her backpack. She stood up and slipped on her mask before unfreezing time and stepping out into the light.

She waited anxiously, trying not to think too much about the fight she’d just had with Sasha. She heard Andi coming before she saw her, and a few moments later she appeared and stopped in front of her, flipping the visor of her helmet up. “You ready?”

Elena nodded. “Yep!” She tried for a smile, but she knew it wasn’t very convincing. She stepped forward and opened up the saddle bag of the bike to pull out Andi’s spare helmet and replace it with her backpack. She got on the bike behind Andi and put her arms around her. She was still getting used to this whole ‘motorcycle’ thing, but it was starting to be more fun than scary, and it was honestly exactly what she needed right now.

They parked in an alley downtown, and Andi reminded Elena to put in the earpiece she’d given her earlier, so she could hear what was going on in the Greenhouse.

“Hey, Permafrost.” She heard Ashlyn’s voice in her ear and jumped.

Andi laughed and then asked, “So have you guys heard anything yet?”

Cyrus’s voice came through Elena’s earpiece (and presumably Andi’s as well). “Nope. Things have been pretty quiet.”

“Well, the night is young, and so are we.” Andi smiled and turned back to the front of her bike.

Having been on the other side of this a few times, where Cyrus and Ashlyn were now, she knew there was a lot of waiting involved. On one hand, it was a little less comfortable sitting on the back of Andi’s bike, but it was so much more exciting. And fortunately, Cyrus kept things from getting too boring by keeping up a running commentary about everything from the few people they saw walking by to what he had done that day. (Mostly, he talked about his boyfriend, which Elena found too adorable to mind, even though the other two seemed a little annoyed by it.)

“And then, TJ- oh!”

Before Elena could ask what just happened, Ashlyn interrupted. “It looks like we’ve got a break in.”

Andi and Elena both straightened up, suddenly alert. “Where?” Andi flipped down her visor. Ashlyn rattled off the address, and Elena felt her blood run cold. Andi turned back to her. “You ready?”

“That’s Sasha’s house.”

Elena couldn’t see Andi’s face, but she could almost feel the concern radiating off her. “Are you gonna be ok to do this?”

Elena nodded and tried to shake off her shock, putting her arms around Andi as she turned forward again and started the engine. Her mind raced faster than the bike the whole way there, flooding with images of Sasha, home alone, scared, hurt. She didn’t know what she’d do if anything happened to her.

As soon as the bike stopped, Elena hopped off, throwing her helmet down and running toward the house.

“Wait!” She stopped and turned to see Andi behind her, having just stepped off her bike and holding her helmet in her hand. “We need a plan.”

“We don’t have time for that!” Wait.  _ Time _ .

Elena took one last look at the anger and worry frozen on Andi’s face before turning back to the house. She walked through the open door. No. Not just open. Broken. Another wave of anxiety came over her as she continued through the house she’d run out of just hours before. It was eerily quiet, like it always was when time was frozen and the only sound was her breathing, but this time the silence was deafening.

She went to Sasha’s room first because how could she not? There was a man standing in her doorway. She didn’t recognize him, but the sight filled her with rage. As she slipped passed him into the room, she could smell alcohol.

Sasha sat on her bed, frozen in fear. Well, maybe she wasn’t frozen  _ because _ she was afraid, but she did look terrified. It broke Elena’s heart. She had a death grip on her phone in her lap, the screen showing an ongoing call with 911.

She nodded to herself and turned back to the intruder. Ok, maybe Andi was right, and they needed a plan, but she couldn’t exactly go get Andi now. For the first time, it struck her how  _ lonely _ her power was. She shook the thought away and took a deep breath. She thought back to all of Buffy’s training as she took a step closer to the man. She spun around to give herself more momentum and kicked him right in the chest, unfreezing time at the same time. She barely had time to be proud of herself before she heard a scream behind her and turned around to face Sasha, still sitting on her bed and staring at her with wide eyes. The distraction was enough for the man to knock her off her feet, and she noticed Sasha wince in sympathy as she hit the ground. He was still struggling to get up herself when vines came flying down the hallway and pulled him back down.

Sunflower marched into the room and put her hands on her hips as she looked down at Elena. “I told you to wait.”

“And I told you there wasn’t time. He was in her room!”

Andi sighed and reached out her hand to help Elena up before turning to Sasha, a much softer look on her face. “Are you ok?” Sasha just nodded meekly. Andi gestured behind herself with your thumb. “Do you know who this guy is?”

“I think he works with my mom.”

Andi nodded. “You called 911, right?” Sasha nodded. Andi held out her hand, and Sasha handed over her phone. “I’ll deal with this.” She turned to Elena. “You make sure she’s ok.”

Elena nodded and watched Andi put the phone between her head and shoulder and start talking as she bent down to pick up the man on the ground by the vines that were wrapped around his body. Ignoring his protests, she pushed him down the hall.

Once they were gone, Elena finally turned back to Sasha. She didn’t know what to say.

“Who are you?” Sasha asked her.

“Oh. Um. I’m Permafrost. I freeze time.” She smiled nervously and noticed the corner of Sasha’s mouth quirk up for a split second. “I’m kind of new to this whole superhero thing.”

Sasha nodded and stood up, taking a step closer to her. Elena felt like she was seeing right through her. Or maybe just through her mask. Either way, it made it a hard for her to breathe.

She wasn’t sure how much time they spent just starring at each other, both waiting for the other to say something before they were interrupted by Andi coming back in the room. She gave Sasha her phone back and told her, “The cops want to talk to you. Do you want me to be there with you?”

Sasha nodded and followed Andi, glancing back at Elena for just a second as she walked through the door. Elena sighed and followed behind them. 

She didn’t join them in talking to the cops though. Instead she waited by the bike, spinning her helmet around in her hand as she watched them. Andi’s hand sat protectively on Sasha’s shoulder the whole time. A few minutes later, Sasha’s parents came home and ran to hug their daughter before turning to talk to the cops themselves. Eventually, they left, the intruder handcuffed in the backseat of their car. Sasha’s parents turned to talk to Sunflower for a bit before the family walked back in the house together, and Andi walked over to Elena. She picked up her helmet and put it on as she got on the bike. Elena followed suit. Even with the roaring of the motorcycle, there was a tense silence over them the whole ride.

Back at the Greenhouse, they had a slightly uncomfortable debriefing before she could change out of her brand new supersuit. It felt like much more than a few hours ago that she’d been so excited to try it on for the first time. She rode home with Ashlyn and Cyrus. (After how her mom had reacted the last time Andi had given her a ride home, she wasn’t about to make that mistake again.)

“Is Andi mad at me?” She asked from the backseat, leaning forward a bit.

Cyrus turned in the passenger seat to look at her. “I don’t think she’s mad. She’d not exactly happy you ignored her, but I think she gets it. Your best friend was in danger, and it was your first time superheroing.”

Ashlyn glanced at her through the mirror. “Yeah, and Andi doesn’t ever stay mad for long. Besides, everything worked out in the end.”

“So she is mad.” That was the only part she could focus on.

Cyrus frowned at her. “Not what she meant. Just give Andi a day or so to calm down and then talk to her about it. It’ll work out.” She nodded, and he gave her a knowing look. “And the same goes for Sasha.”

She raised her eyebrows in surprise. and he just gave her soft smile. “Oh.” Somehow, she always got the feeling that Cyrus knew more than he should. She leaned back in her seat and rested her head against the window, letting herself get lost in her thoughts.


	12. Dear Sasha

Sasha walked through the classroom where the school newsletter committee met. As she greeted the others, her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. It had been almost a week since she’d talked to her best friend. Elena had tried to talk to her a couple times, but it was just too much for her. She was still processing everything that had happened that night, from her fight with Elena to… the break in. And Permafrost.

She sighed as she settled into her seat in the back of the room. As she opened up her laptop and logged into the email she used for her advice column, the image of Elena standing in front of her in that stupid mask played in her mind on a loop.

She tried to shake the image out of her head and focus on reading her emails. There weren’t a ton this week, and nothing really stood out as particularly interesting. She could almost work on autopilot at this point, writing out generic advice about communication or time management, putting in just enough thought to keep her mind from wandering back to Elena.

Until she got to the last one. It was signed ‘Torn up in Tallahassee,’ and Sasha sat up a bit straighter as she read it, knowing exactly who that was.

_ I think I’ve messed things up with my best friend. We haven’t had a fight this big since the sixth grade, and I don’t know if I can fix it this time. I haven’t been there for her. I’ve been so busy with new friends, and I’ve been keeping things from her. I was worried she’d get hurt if I told the truth, but she got hurt anyway, and I think she’s figure out my secret, right after our big fight. I thought I was protecting her, but now I’m worried it’s too late, and I’ve lost her forever. _

She read through it over and over again, feeling tears start to form in her eyes. It was eerily similar to a letter she still had in a box in her room from sixth grade, write down to the signature. The first and last time she and Elena had had a big fight had been right before Elena had left to visit her family in Florida. While she was gone, Elena had submitted a letter to her advice column as a form of apology. Sasha was waiting for her at the airport when she returned. They ran toward each other and hugged like the ending to a cheesy romcom.

Sasha started typing out a response. It took until almost everyone else had left to get it just right. She already knew she wouldn’t submit this one to the newsletter. Instead, she printed out both Elena’s message and her response and took them with her when she left. She needed to talk to her in person before she could forgive her this time.

It was a few days before Sasha actually talked to her though. She kept almost talking to her, but then she’d chicken out and come up with some excuse why she couldn’t.

Sasha watched Elena walk down the hallway with Belinda, the two of them laughing about something. Sasha and Elena made eye contact and then both quickly looked away. Jessi put her arm around Sasha. “If you want to talk to her, you should talk to her, but don’t force yourself to if you aren’t ready. I know there’s more to what happened than you told me, but you aren’t obligated to forgive her. She hurt you.”

“I know. But she’s my best friend.”

“I know. I’ll support you whatever you decide, you know that, right?”

Sasha nodded and leaned her head on Jessi’s shoulder. “I know. Thank you, Jessi.”

Sasha finally got up the courage to talk to Elena on Friday after school. She walked up to Elena’s house, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

Elena’s mom answered. “Oh, hi, Sasha. It’s been a while.”

“Is Elena here?”

She nodded and called over her shoulder, “Elenita! Sasha’s here!”

Sasha heard her running down the stairs, and then Elena appeared next to her mom, breathing just a little bit heavily. “Sasha!”

“I’ll leave you two alone.” Gabi walked away, giving Sasha a small smile.

“Hi, Elena.”

“Do you want to come in?”

“Can we talk out here, actually?” Elena nodded and walked outside, closing the door behind her. They sat down on the steps to the porch. “I, um, I got your letter.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded and pulled out her own letter out of her pocket. “Here.” She gave it to her and starred down at her knees as she read it.

After about a minute, she heard Elena say, “Sasha…” in a soft voice. She looked up at her and saw that Elena’s eyes were starting to water. “Sasha, I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I thought I was protecting you.”

“Yeah. You said that.”

“Sasha-”

A car suddenly pulled up and parked on the street in front of them. The door flung open, and the driver ran toward them looking a bit frazzled.

“Ashlyn?” Elena asked.

“Elena, we need to go. Something happened.”

Elena stood up. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. Buffy just told me to come get you.”

“Where’s Andi?”

“I don’t know.”

“Elena?”

Elena looked down at her. “Sasha, I am so sorry.”

Sasha looked between the two other girls. They both looked terrified. “Go. Do what you need to do.”

“We’ll finish this conversation later, I promise.”

Sasha just nodded, and Elena turned and ran with Ashlyn to the car. Sasha sat and watched the car speed away.

The door opened behind her, and she heard Gabi ask, “Sasha? Where’s Elena?”

She turned and looked up at her. “Um…”


	13. When You Need Somebody

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [fic playlist!](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RNhkhPrQB80inA7F3PM08?si=WwUUSpz_RdavyBmLsTY5WA)
> 
> (chapter title from side by side by sofia wylie)

Buffy, Marty, Jonah, and TJ were playing basketball at the park while Andi and Cyrus sat in the grass making flower crowns, having long since given up pretending to keep up with the game. As Buffy glanced over at the two, she was kind of amazed that the aptly named dumbass trio hadn’t noticed that Andi never actually got up to get the flowers. She just rolled her eyes and returned her focus to the game, which was closer than she’d care to admit. Still, it was just nice to have the whole crew hanging out together on what might be the last day it was still warm enough to play outside. And kicking TJ’s ass was always a plus.

Speaking of, TJ was distracted for a second, and Buffy was happy to use the opportunity to steal the ball from him and make a basket. But when he didn’t seem to care, or even notice, she turned to see what he was looking at. Kira was walking toward them.  _ Great _ . Buffy picked up the ball and joined the boys, watching her approach. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Andi and Cyrus sit up a little straighter, preparing for whatever was about to happen.

“What do you want, Kira?” Buffy asked when she was close enough to hear her.

Kira just kept walking toward them, stopping when she got to the edge of the court. “This is a public park, is it not? I have just as much right to be here as you do.”

“Yeah ok, but what do you want?” Buffy repeated.

Kira just smirked and held up her hand. Before Buffy could react, there was an all-too familiar high-pitched ringing noise, and she instinctively covered her ears with her hands. After a moment, it started to fade a little bit, and she looked around. It was suddenly dark, and the park was eerily quiet and empty.

She turned at the sound of footsteps approaching to see her mom standing in front of her. Wearing her uniform. Buffy’s stomach filled with dread. But her mom didn’t say anything. She just turned around and walked away, time seeming to slow down impossibly. Buffy stepped forward and reached out. “Mommy?” She blinked out of existence before Buffy could reach her. The light and noise and people of the park faded back into view. Except now Kira was gone.  _ What the hell? _ She wiped her eyes and looked around

“Guys, where’s Andi?” The worry in TJ’s voice was matched by the feeling of dread that overcame Buffy at his words. She looked over where she and Cyrus had been sitting only moments ago. Cyrus was alone, looking just as panicked as she felt, his eyes tinged red around the edges. The two of them locked eyes for a second, and then she took off in the direction Kira had come from. But Kira was nowhere to be found, and neither was Andi.

She didn’t stop until she heard Cyrus calling her name. When she turned back, she saw behind him Marty with his hand on Jonah’s shoulder as he leaned forward and TJ looked on in concern.  _ Shit _ . She was gonna kill Kira. She ran back to Cyrus, but even as she got to him, her eyes were still on Jonah. “I’m going to kill her.”

Cyrus looked back at Jonah and then turned and pushed Buffy’s phone into her hands. “No, you’re not. You’re going to call the team.”

She nodded once as she took the phone from him. As he turned away toward Jonah, Marty quickly took his place in front of her. “Buffy, what’s going on?”

“Just help Jonah. Please.” He looked into her eyes for a couple seconds before nodding and turning back to the others. She walked a couple feet away and unlocked her phone. It took a couple tries because she was shaking, but she managed to call Ashlyn. “Hey, Ash?”

“Buffy? Are you ok?”

“I need you to get Elena and meet us in the Greenhouse. Something happened.”

Ashlyn hesitated for a second, probably wanting to ask a million questions Buffy wasn’t prepared to answer, but instead all she said was, “Ok. Just be safe, and you better explain everything when we get there.

“I will.”

“I love you.”

“Love you too.” She hung up and took a deep breath before turning back to the others.

Jonah was sitting on the bench now, having calmed down significantly but not entirely from his panic attack. Cyrus and Marty were sitting on either side of him. She walked up to them just as TJ was handing Jonah a water bottle. She looked at Cyrus. “We need to go.”

“Who’s ‘we?’” Marty asked.

“Me and Cyrus.”

Jonah’s head snapped up. “What? You can’t leave.”

It hurt to see the terrified look in Jonah’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Jonah. We have to. We have to find Andi.” She couldn’t even think about the alternative.

“Andi’s our friend, too,” TJ argued. “And you two seem way less surprised by whatever just happened than you should. What is going on?”

Buffy and Cyrus shared a look. Cyrus stood up and held TJ’s hands. “I’m sorry, TJ. Buffy’s right.”

TJ shook his head. “No.” He dropped Cyrus’s hands. “No. You three have been keeping stuff from the rest of us for years now. And we’ve dealt with it, but this is too much. If Andi’s in danger, we deserve to know what’s going on.”

Buffy bit her lip. She knew he was right. She wanted to tell them. But it wasn’t her secret to tell. It was Andi’s. And Ashlyn’s and Elena’s and Nini’s. She couldn’t just betray their trust like that. She took a deep breath and explained what she could. “Kira is basically a supervillain and just kidnapped Andi because she hates me. And now Cyrus and I have to get her back.”

“No offense, but how are you two going to get her back if she’s ‘basically a supervillain?’” TJ asked.

“We’ll have help,” Buffy tried to reassure them.

“Just not from us.” Buffy looked at Marty, and it broke her heart how dejected he looked.

“I’m sorry. It’s not safe.”

Apparently, that was exactly the wrong thing to say. Marty stood up. “And what about your safety?”

“Kira is doing this because of me. This is my fight.”

“I’ll make sure she doesn’t do any of the actual fighting,” Cyrus said.

She looked at him. “Excuse me? She kidnapped my best friend. I’m going to kill her.” Jonah flinched, and she immediately felt bad for raising her voice.

Cyrus took her hand and looked her in the eye. “No one is going to die, and we leave the fighting to the people with powers.”

“You mean a child who fucked up the one mission she’s been on.”

“I mean a child who can freeze time. She’s probably the best chance we have, so we better hope you’ve taught her something.”

“Fine.” She gave in more because they were wasting time than because she actually agreed with him.

“Ok, woah, you’re not exactly making us feel better here,” Marty argued.

“I’m sorry, Marty.” She turned and started picking up her and Andi’s stuff. She saw Andi’s phone on the ground next to the bench.  _ Well, there goes any chance of using that to find her. _ She picked it up and put it in her pocket. She saw the flower crown Andi had been making and slowly reached down to pick it up. When she stood up, she saw Cyrus hugging TJ goodbye, but Buffy just kissed her boys each on the cheek because she knew if she hugged them she wouldn’t be able to make herself let go. “I promise you, we’ll explain everything. After we save Andi. It’s just not our secret to tell. It’s hers.” She looked at each of the three boys, and they all nodded, but they didn’t look happy about it. “And we’ll text you, ok?” They nodded again. “I love you.” She hoped they knew that was directed at all three of them, even if she didn’t say it to TJ very often. “Take care of each other.”

“Yeah, you too,” Marty said.

And with that, she and Cyrus made their way quickly to his car.

At the Greenhouse, they noticed that even the plants looked sad, wilting slightly and looking less bright than usual. Ashlyn was sitting at the table, tapping her fingers, and Elena was pacing in front of her. As soon as they saw Cyrus and Buffy, they both ran over to them and started asking a million questions at once, talking over each other in a way that gave Buffy a headache. They led them back over to sit down before they explained.

“Andi’s gone?” Elena asked when they were done.

“We’ll get her back,” Cyrus assured her.

“How?”

“We need a plan.” Ashlyn spun around in her chair and rolled over to the computer, turning it on.

“When I find Kira-” Buffy didn’t know how to finish that sentence.

“We’ll figure something out.” Cyrus looked at her and then got up and walked over to the dry-erase board in the corner. He wheeled it over to the table and started erasing the remnants from Buffy helping Andi with her math homework the day before. 

And the four of them got to work.

Hours later, they were no closer to a plan. Buffy wasn’t sure how late it was when Cyrus suggested they try to get some sleep. The suggestion was, of course, completely ridiculous. “We can’t sleep. We have to find Andi.”

“You’re no good to Andi when you’re so exhausted you can’t stand.”

Elena and Ashlyn had both already passed out on the couch, and Cyrus had run upstairs to grab extra blankets and pillows. He held a blanket out to her and stared at her until she took it from him, finally giving in because she was too tired to argue. “Fine.” She kicked an empty pizza box out of the way and laid down on the floor in front of the couch.

Cyrus turned off the lights and laid down next to her. “I’m worried about her, too, you know. But we’ll find her. And in the meantime, she’ll be fine. She’s Andi Mack. She’s Sunflower. She’s the toughest person I know.” Buffy raised her eyebrow at him, and even though it was dark, and he probably couldn’t see it, he got the message. “Ok, second toughest. But my point still stands. She’ll be ok.”  _ She has to be _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yall: what happened to andi? is she ok?  
> me: you get an answer to one (1) of those questions
> 
> (the working title of this chapter until like 2 seconds ago was just 'andi gets kidnapped')


	14. I Will Be Somebody

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a shorter chapter, but an emotional one <3
> 
> [fic playlist!](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RNhkhPrQB80inA7F3PM08?si=WwUUSpz_RdavyBmLsTY5WA)
> 
> (chapter title from side by side by sofia wylie)

Elena found herself standing in front of a statue in a small park. She’d passed by it a few times, but she’d never really looked at it closely before. It had been mentioned in one of the articles she’d read, and she’d thought about visiting before, but it never felt right. Until now. Tensions were running high in the Greenhouse, and Buffy had snapped at her, and she’d just… run. She was so overwhelmed with everything going on, she didn’t know where to go. The one person she wanted to talk to… She took a shaky breath as she looked up at the statue. It didn’t quite look like him. Something just felt off. The face wasn’t quite right. She couldn’t help but wonder what her dad would have thought of it. He probably would have hated it. A whole statue dedicated to him. In a park that she wasn’t sure he’d even been to before. 

There were no people in the park now. The statue and the park it was in both looked like they hadn’t been taken care of in a long time. It had only been six years, and the city had already forgotten about him. He probably would like it better like this, but it still made her sad. He’d given his life for this city, and he’d just faded from their collective memories. But he would never fade from hers.

She put her hand over the symbol over her chest as she felt the pain behind it. “Hi, dad.” Her voice cracked, and she felt tears start to fill her eyes. “It’s me, Lenny.” She brushed her hair behind her ears. “Things are changing again, and I’m really scared this time. I’m trying to help people. Like you. But I don’t know if I can do this. The person who’s been helping me, Andi, I think you’d like her.” She half-smiled for just a second. “But she’s gone now. And…” She took a shaky breath. “I don’t know how we’re going to get her back. I… I wish you were here. I wish you could tell me what to do. I wish…” She couldn’t get any more words out. She was fully crying at this point, painful, silent, wracking sobs.

“Elenita?”

She turned quickly, making her feel light-headed for a second. Her mom was standing there. She didn’t even question how she knew where she was or who she was. They ran toward each other, meeting in the middle and throwing their arms around each other. Her mom rubbed her back and held her while she cried. Eventually, she lead Elena over to a nearby bench, and they sat down, facing each other.

Her mom reached up to brush her hair out of her face and take off her mask. “Ay, mi amor.”

Elena looked down as she took another shaky breath and tried to compose herself. “Did you know?”

Her mom reached out and held her hands. “Of course I did.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was waiting for you to tell me.”

Elena nodded. “How’d you find me?”

“Your friend Buffy came over looking for you. I kind of had a feeling.” She looked over at the statue. “I’ve been here too a few times.”

Elena nodded. “Oh.”

“What happened?”

Elena took a breath and explained. “There’s this girl, Kira. I guess she has some kind of grudge against Buffy. And she also has powers. And she… She kidnapped Andi. Yesterday. And we’re trying to find her, but we’ve kind of fallen apart without her, and I just don’t know what to do.”

“Andi’s a superhero, too, right? The one with the plants?”

Elena nodded. She wasn’t even surprised that her mom had figured it out. “I don’t think Kira even knows that. I think it was just because she’s Buffy’s friend.” She leaned against her mom. “I just don’t know what to do.” She looked at the statue of her dad again. “Maybe I’m not cut out to be a superhero.”

Her mom put her hands on her arms and sat her up straight, looking her in the eye. “What are you talking about, Elena? You are the bravest person I know. Your whole life, all you’ve wanted to do is help people. Elenita, I see so much of your father in you, and sometimes it terrifies me, but it also amazes me. As much as I want to protect you forever, I know that there is nothing I can do to stop you from being a hero. It’s in your blood. And more than that, it’s who you are. So what you’re going to do is put this mask back on, go back to your team, and save your friend.” She moved a hand up to Elena’s face to wipe her tears away. “Because that is the Elena Ofelia Cañero-Reed I know.” Elena smiled softly and nodded. “But first, you need to get this hair out of your face. I don’t know how you expect to get anything done if you can’t see see.” Elena laughed lightly at that. “Now turn around.”

Elena did as she asked and let her mom pull her hair back into a braid for her, giving her the ponytail that she kept on her wrist when she got to the end. When she was done, they stood up, and Elena turned around and hugged her mom. “Thanks, Mami.”

Her mom smiled at her and handed her her mask. “Just make sure you come home.” Her gaze flicked over to the statue that was now behind Elena for just a split second. “I’m not losing another person I care about.” Elena nodded. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She gave her mom one last hug before freezing time. She turned and left the park, looking back at her mom as she did. She wondered if she’d ever get used to seeing people completely frozen in time. She shook her head, put her mask back on, and started the trek back to the Greenhouse.


	15. What Would a Hero Do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i made a moodboard for nini and drew her costume [here](https://localspacelesbian.tumblr.com/post/642599367725973505/insert-drawing-here-heres-a-little-hint-to-the) if yall are interested (and yes, her as a platypus is included)
> 
> [fic playlist!](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3RNhkhPrQB80inA7F3PM08?si=WwUUSpz_RdavyBmLsTY5WA)
> 
> (chapter title is from be the hero from flop stoppers by the tin can brothers)

When Elena stepped out of the elevator and into the Greenhouse, she saw four people sitting around the computer. They all looked up when they heard her arrive. Buffy, Cyrus, and Ashlyn all ran up to her, and she met them halfway in a group hug, rushing to apologize. “I’m sorry I left.”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Ashlyn assured her. “We get it.”

“I’m sorry I snapped at you,” Buffy apologized with a small smile.

“You’re here now,” Cyrus said. “That’s what matters.”

She nodded, smiling back at them.

The fourth person approached, and Elena realized she recognized her even though she’d never before seen her in person. She gave Elena a smile and a small wave. “Hi.” The other three moved to give them room.

“You’re-”

She nodded and held out her hand. “Nini.”

That wasn’t what Elena had been about to say, but she nodded and shook Nini’s hand. “Elena.” She figured it was only fair, and she was still a little too starstruck to say much else. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard what happened and figured you guys could use an extra hand. Besides, Andi’s like a little sister to me; I couldn’t not come.”

Elena nodded. “Yeah, she’s kind of like a big sister to me.”

Nini smiled. “Well, I guess that kind of makes us sisters, too, then.”

Elena smiled back, and then looked around at the other three. “So, have you guys had any luck?”

Ashlyn walked back over to the computer and gestured for everyone to follow her. “Well, the tracker I put in her car was a dead end, ‘cause it’s still at her house, and she is definitely not, but I was able to hack into traffic cam footage near the park, and I’ve almost narrowed down their location.” They all looked at the screen and saw a map with some dots on it. Ashlyn typed a few more things, and a circle appeared around one of the dots. “They should be somewhere around here.” It pretty big circle, but it was better than they had before, which was nothing.

“So what, are we just supposed to check every building in that area? That could take forever.” Cyrus said.

“Andi doesn’t have forever,” Nini said.

Elena was about to suggest using her powers to give them a little more time when Buffy said, “Wait, zoom in there,” and pointed at the screen.

Ashlyn zoomed in, and the buildings came into focus. Buffy pointed at one of them. It was a middle school.

“Why would she be there?” Nini asked.

“That’s where she went before she transferred to Jefferson. That can’t be a coincidence, right?”

Ashlyn nodded. “She did say that the first time she lost control of her powers was in middle school.”

“And the last basketball team she played on that I wasn’t on would have been the Monarchs,” Buffy added.

“But why would she hide out in a school. Aren’t there people there?” Cyrus asked.

Nini shrugged. “It is a weekend.” But that wouldn’t really work long term, so either Kira didn’t think this through or-

“I think the school is closed this year for renovations or something. I remember one of the girls on the team talking about it. Her little sister was supposed to go there,” Buffy explained. And that was too many coincidences. She shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt to at least check.”

Not having any better ideas, everyone agreed and started getting ready to go. Buffy took Cyrus’s keys and drove them in his mom’s minivan. The drive was tense, but they managed to come up with a plan along the way.

They parked about a block away from the school. Nini shapeshifted into a small hummingbird, somehow still wearing her red dress and cape and white mask, which was more adorable than it had any right to be. (Elena briefly wondered what happened to her leggings and boots, but decided there were more important things to focus on at the moment.) Ashlyn opened the door to step out, and Nini the Bird settled onto her shoulder. Ashlyn gave the other three a salute before closing the door and disappearing.

The seconds dragged on as they waited. Eventually, the sound of Ashlyn’s voice coming from the car speakers cut through the tension. “We’re in the school. I don’t see anything yet, but the East door was unlocked. We’re going to check the gym.”

Elena looked at Buffy and Cyrus. Buffy nodded, and she nodded back. “Ok, I’m coming in.” She got out of the van and froze time. She walked down the block to the school. As she got closer, she noticed that there almost seemed to be a trail of flowers leading toward the East door.  _ Andi _ . She opened the door and went inside. It didn’t take her long to find the gym. The door was still slightly ajar, and she slipped through, seeing Ashlyn on the other side, Nini frozen midflight facing away from them. Elena closed the door before walking up to Ashlyn and unfreezing time. Ashlyn managed to only be slightly startled when she saw her. Elena turned on her earpiece and told Buffy and Cyrus that she’d made it.

Nini flew back over to them and turned back into herself midair, landing on her feet gracefully. “Andi’s in the locker room.” She pointed behind her with her thumb.

Elena and Ashlyn both nodded, and were about to walk over there when they heard Kira walking toward them from the opposite direction. Elena and Ashlyn turned around, and Nini stepped forward next to them, ready for a fight. Ashlyn nodded at Elena and Nini before turning back around to go to the locker room. Kira didn’t notice her, which Elena still found weird but was infinitely grateful for. She did her best not to draw Kira’s attention in that direction.

Kira tilted her head to the side, giving them a condescending look. “What, Phantom and Discount Poison Ivy were busy, so they sent you two?” She looked at Nini. “I thought you were dead or something.” She looked at Elena. “And who are you supposed to be? Elsa?” Elena just rolled her eyes. Kira started walking around them, and they turned to keep her in sight. “You know, I’m almost insulted Driscoll didn’t come herself. But I guess she knows she can’t beat me.” Elena heard Buffy scoff in her ear.

Nini put her hands on her hips. “So what’s your plan anyway? You kidnapped Buffy’s best friend just to get to her? Now what? What are trying to accomplish here? All of this,” She gestured around her, “Just because Buffy kicked you off her basketball team in middle school?”

Kira took a step closer to them, setting her jaw in anger, but before she could say anything, Elena added on, “Is this really all about Buffy? Like, you find out you have powers, and your first thought is revenge? Over something that happened in middle school? Come on. You have to be smarter than that.”

Kira crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, but Elena could see they were getting to her. “What, you think I’m just gonna spill my evil plan and tragic backstory in some kind of cliche villain monologue?” She looked at Elena. “You’re right. I am smarter than that,” She added with a smirk.

Nini shrugged and got Kira’s attention. “I mean, I could turn into a platypus if that would help.” And then she did. She actually turned into a platypus. Elena didn’t think she had ever seen anyone look as bewildered as Kira looked in that moment.

In her ear, she heard Buffy ask if she really did it, and Ashlyn confirm that she had. Then, Cyrus , in a very bad Dr. Doofenshmirtz impression, said, “ _ A platypus? Nini the Platypus!! _ ” It took literally all of Elena’s self control to contain her laughter.

Nini the Platypus took a step forward and then a step back, like she was trying to get used to being in this body. Elena wondered if she’d ever actually been a platypus before. After a few seconds, she turned back into herself. “Wow, you know, it is much harder to fight crime as a platypus than cartoons would have us believe,” she said, like cartoons being inaccurate was somehow brand new information.

“ _ It’s Perry! Perry the Teenage Girl! _ ” Buffy sang. Once again, Elena had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

Kira still looked completely bewildered. “Ok, what is happening right now?”

Elena and Nini looked at each other and then back at Kira. Elena shrugged and cocked her head to the side. “What, you don’t recognize a distraction when you see one?”

Kira’s eyebrows scrunched together, but just as Elena’s words sunk in, both of her wrists were suddenly wrapped in vines, and she was pulled down onto her knees. Behind her, holding the other ends of the vines, was Andi —or more accurately Sunflower— her coat almost seeming to change colors as she marched toward them, Ashlyn right along side her. But before Elena could so much as sigh in relief, Kira screamed, and they all instinctively covered their ears with their hands to block out the sound. A high-pitched ringing echoed throughout the room.

After a minute, Elena opened her eyes and put her hands down as the sound started to fade into the background. She wasn’t in the gym anymore. Around her was only darkness. A figure appeared in the distance. She couldn’t make it out, but it was moving toward her slowly. She tried to freeze time. Nothing happened. Panicking, she tried again and again. The figure kept moving. As it got closer, it came into focus as Belinda. She stopped right in front of Elena. Belinda had an expression on her face that Elena had rarely seen, certainly never directed at  _ her _ . It was a look of disgust. Elena felt herself shrink back.

“What are you doing here? You think you’re some kind of hero? You’re a child. You can’t help anyone. You can’t even help yourself.” She crossed her arms.

Elena took a step closer. “Belinda…”  _ I thought we were friends. _

She scoffed. “Friends? We aren’t friends. You only talk to us out of pity. We don’t need you. You’re not a 6 o’clocker, and you never were. As if I would ever like you.”

Elena felt her eyes start to water, but she refused to let the tears fall. She tried to tell herself that this wasn’t real. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists, trying to focus on breathing. But when she opened her eyes, Belinda wasn’t alone. Now Sasha and Jessi were there too, matching looks of disdain on their faces. On Sasha, it looked especially unnatural, especially when she spoke and Elena could hear it dripping from her voice. “You lied to me.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. You said that. And then you left.” Jessi put her arm protectively around Sasha and glared down at Elena.

“Sasha, you know I had to. Kira-” _ Right. Kira. _ She was doing this. None of this was real. She closed her eyes again and took deep breaths.

_ None of this is real. _

_ None of this is real. _

_ None of this is real. _

Her breathing back to normal, she opened her eyes. This time they were gone, but everything was still dark.

She heard footsteps behind her and turned around, sharply intaking a breath when she saw who it was. “Dad?”

He smiled at her. “Hi.”

She frowned and took a step back, shaking her head. “No. This isn’t real. You aren’t really here.”

He took a step toward her. “Lenny…”

The tears she had been holding back finally fell into her mask.  _ Fuck it. I want to hug my dad. _ She ran into his arms, and he held her. She couldn’t explain it, but something about him felt so much more real than the other images had. Even his smell was more real

She stepped back. “But how? You’re…”

He shook his head. “I may be gone, but I’ll always be right here.” He tapped his finger on the symbol on her chest, right over her heart. “And I am so proud of you. And I always will be.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “Be strong, Lenny. You got this.”

She nodded. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He kissed her forehead. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, he was gone. She choked out a sob, but tried to swallow it down. 

_ Be strong. _

She blinked back the tears and realized she was back in the gym, everything around her frozen in time. Her friends had their hands over their ears, pained expressions on their faces. Kira was still in the middle of them all, her face frozen in a smirk, the vines that had held now withered on the ground behind her. She decided that unfreezing time was not an option, meaning that she was alone. She briefly lifted her mask to wipe her eyes before her gaze landed back on the vines lying on the ground and followed them up to Andi.  _ Well, maybe not entirely alone. _

She thought back to freezing time with her brother. She’d assumed that was something she could only do with him because he had the same power, but she’d never actually tested that. Maybe…  _ Well, there’s only one way to find out _ . She stepped toward Andi and put her hand on her arm, trying to concentrate on keeping time for frozen for everyone except Andi.

She felt Andi move just slightly and looked up at her face. Andi slowly moved her hands down from her ears and looked at Elena and then around at everything else, a confused expression forming on her face.

Elena stumbled back a bit, feeling a little dizzy, but it passed after a second. “Woah.”

“What just happened?” Andi asked.

Elena looked around to confirm that everything else was still frozen. “I wasn’t sure if that would actually work.”

“What worked?” Andi looked around. “Wait, is time frozen? How come I’m not frozen?”

“I unfroze you?”

“I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Neither did I.”

“Ok… Processing, processing…” She nodded. “Ok, so what’s the plan now?”

“Unfreezing you  _ was  _ the plan.”

Andi nodded. “Right. Ok.” She started walking toward Kira, and Elena followed. “Oh, this is weird.”

“Yeah, I’m still not really used to it.”

Andi shook her head. “Ok, let’s see… We aren’t trying to kill her, obviously, but maybe we could knock her out?”

Elena nodded. “Right. How do we do that?” She supposed they could just hit her really hard with something, but she was pretty sure Andi was going for something less violent.

Andi reached into an inside pocket of her jacket and pulled out a small clear vial with a blue lid. Inside was some sort of crushed up dried plants.

“That seems… witchy.”

Andi laughed and waved her hand. “Nah, Ashlyn’s the witch, not me. This is science. And it should buy us some time. Now, I’m going to need you to get ready to catch her and to unfreeze time when I tell you to.”

Elena nodded and then stood next to Andi, who blew some of the powder in her face and signaled for Elena to unfreeze time.

Kira was startled when she saw her and then confused, but before she could react, she blinked slowly a couple times and started to fall forward. Elena managed to catch her and gently set her on the ground with a little help from Andi. She looked up and saw her friends walking up to them.

“What did you do?” Nini asked.

Andi held up the blue vial for a second before putting it back in her pocket.

“So how much time do we have before she wakes up?” Ashlyn asked.

Andi shrugged. “Couple hours maybe?”

“So what now?” Elena asked.


End file.
